Class 
Book 




PW. 



GoipghtN?. 



COPfl^FGHT DEPOSIT. 



m EI 



Personal Reminiscences 

and Fragments ol the 
Early History of 

SPRINGFIELD 

GREENE COUNTY 
MISSOURI 







COPYRIGHTED 
1014 

By 
MAETIN J. HOBBLE 

SPRTNGFIBLD, MO. 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

AND FRAGMENTS of the 
EARLY HISTORY OF 

SPRINGFIELD 

flw^GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI 



3 6-X 



RELATED BY 

PIONEERS 

AND THEIR t^X 

DESCENDANTS 



At OLD SETTLERS' DINNERS 

GIVEN AT THE HOME OF 

CAPT. MARTIN J. HUBBLE 
MARCH 31, 1907,1908, 1909.1910,1911 



1914 

INLAND PRINTING CO. 

Springfield, Mo. 







MAR27iai4 |1 '' 

©CI.A;J7I}G82 



FOREWORD. 

This book would not have been published except for the sug- 
gestion of Father J. J. Lilly, after he had read of the first dinner 
I gave to the old settlers of Springfield. He suggested that my 
guests were the only persons now living who could tell of the 
early days as they really were, and of matters and things as they 
really existed, during the first few years of the settlement of 
Greene County. Realizing the truth of his statement, I herewith 
present the recollections of my guests, largely in their own lan- 
guage, which may not attract the hypercritical, but will satisfy 
all those wanting to know our early history and of early set- 
tlers, their integrity, perseverance and forcefulness. There is 
nothing about the late Civil War or things which occurred dur- 
ing or after it, except as to the death and burial of General 
Nathaniel Lyon, which is truthfully told by the only man living 
who knows the facts, Dr. S. H. Melcher, now of Chicago, Illinois. 

The first dinner I gave was on the last day of March, 1906, 
fifty years after my arrival in the city. I sent out invitations 
written with a goose quill pen on a sheet of foolscap paper, and 
folded as we used to fold letters before envelopes were invented. 
They were all sealed with red wafers. The invitations were 
given to J. M. Kelley, J. R. D. Thompson, A. H. Wilson, Captain 
John L. Holland, J. L. Carson, Judge J. Y. Fulbright, Hon. L. H. 
Murray, Dr. E. M. Hendricks, F. M. Shockley, and T. B. Holland. 
The invitation read : 

"On the last day of March, 1856, I rode into Springfield on 
a red Sorrel horse having four white feet and a white nose, a flax 
mane and tail. The tail touched the ground and his mane 
reached his knees. I sold him to Hugh T. Hunt, who knew his 
stock, for $250, I was twenty years old, and now at the end of 
fifty years, I want all of the men who lived in the city or county 



4 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

then, and live in the city now, to take dinner with me on that 
anniversary. 

There will not be many of you, so I urgently ask you to dine 
with me at my house at 12 o'clock noon next Saturday, the 31st 
day of March, 1906. 

Yours truly, 

(Signed) MARTIN J. HUBBLE." 

MENU. 

Turnip Greens Hog's Jowl 

Corn Bread Buttermilk 

Boiled Custard. Pound Cake 

The thirty-first of March, 1906, was a beautiful, sunshiny 
day and all of the guests were present. The next day Father 
Lilly met me on the street and made the suggestion that those 
assembled at the dinner write the early history of the city and 
county, and he was added to the list of guests. What occurred 
at the dinners afterwards will be found in the following pages. 



OF OLD SETTLERS 



PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY SETTLERS. 

REV. J. J. LILLY 
Toastmaster 

Hon, Chairman and Gentlemen: 

Twelve months ago I had the pleasure of meeting our excel- 
lent host and urging him to continue the meetings of the Pioneer 
Citizens of the County and City, as the different papers, prepared 
and read, depicted the trials, toils and sacrifices they made, also 
facts placed on record would be of historical interest, and only 
the sons of the fathers can state these FACTS correctly. 

I am pleased to be with you today, to "Sit at the feet of the 
Elders and Ancients of the People," and listen to the words of 
wisdom that fall from your lips, hear the history of those days, 
days of anxiety, peril and hard labor, changing prairie into fer- 
tile fields, clearing forests and abundance of harvests. 

The sincere friendship that existed between neighbor and 
neighbor, helping and assisting each other in health, and when 
sickness came to offer all kindness, and in death, sympathy and 
condolence. The widow and orphan given help with an open 
hand. 

You taught the children patriotism and the upholding of law 
and government, moral and divine — in a word, our "American 
Institutions." You were the incentives to thrift. 

All these and more are the sureties of good citizenship. All 
having passed your "three score years and ten" and some "four 
score," I know you will join me in thanks to our Heavenly 
Father for the blessings he has showered upon you, long life, 
good health, happy surroundings and the hope of many happy 
days to come in the country and city you have helped to create. 
For myself I hope your days may be long and pleasant and when 
the time comes for the "Master's call," you may be ready, and 
receive the welcome plaudit, "Well done, good and faithful 
servant. ' ' 



6 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

JUDGE J. Y. FULBRIGHT 

The Reason Why We Had an Honest Community in the First 
Settling of This Country. 

The early settlers were mostly from the old hardy stock from 
Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and other older 
states. They came, viewed the country, were well pleased with 
the climate and topography; hence, determined to make for 
themselves and families permanent homes. 

The next thing was to purify the community and make it a 
desirable and pleasant community in which to live. And as new- 
comers moved in, their conduct was carefully scrutinized and if 
serious objections were found, some of the older men would go 
to them quietly and inform them that their conduct was such 
that they preferred that they move on, as there was plenty of 
other territory elsewhere, and by that means got rid of them 
without arrests, fines or imprisonments, and probably no one 
would ever know of it except the parties themselves. 

You ask how this could be done ? I will illustrate by one or 
two instances. There was an old man who lived in the west por- 
tion of this county, familiarly known as Uncle Davy Reynolds. 
It was his custom when he came to Springfield to stay one night 
at my father's house and, as a boy, I had heard him tell of the 
working of this plan. On one occasion a man moved in and 
stopped near his place — had four horses to feed — and he, Uncle 
Davy, soon found that he was not buying corn sufficient to feed 
those four horses, for the county was sparsely settled and he 
knew every man who had corn to sell. He watched his crib and 
found his corn missing. He went to his crib on Saturday, select- 
ing the day on purpose, arranged his corn so that he would know 
if any was taken, and in the cobs of several ears inserted a slip 
of paper with his name written on it. Next morning it was gone. 
On Sunday he visited this man and while there walked out to the 
lot, and on examining the cobs, found several with his name in 
them. He suggested to the man that it was a strange incident. 
Of course the man was confused. Uncle Davy suggested the best 
way out was for him to move and by the time the sun was an 
hour high the next morning he was gone. 



OF OLD SETTLERS 7 

One other instance — a neighbor of Uncle Davy's — kept miss- 
ing his meat and suspected a man living on his place, in a cabin 
with stick and mud chimney, and large loose stones for hearth 
stones. He walked over, seated himself by the fire with the 
family, and soon found that one of the stones had been moved 
recently ; suggested that he saw signs of the wood rats bothering 
them, raised the stone and found his ham of meat. The man soon 
left the county, never to return. 

In this way they eliminated the objectionable element. In 
after years I spent the day socially with Solomon Owens, the 
father of Capt. Baker Owens. During the day we talked of 
the early settling of the county and I spoke of these things and 
he replied that he, too, had resorted to these measures often to 
rid the neighborhood of objectionable characters, and that the 
custom in those days was frequently resorted to by the older and 
better settlers. 



J. R. D. THOMPSON 

My father's name was Edward M. Thompson. He came to 
Springfield from Tennessee in 1829. He had previously lived in 
Kentucky and moved from there to Tennessee. He was raised in 
Maryland. After coming here he first settled on the headwaters 
of the James river at what was known as the Sam'l Caldwell 
farm. He afterwards moved from that place to the Joe McCraw 
farm at Cave Spring, which was then generally known as the 
Eastman farm, six miles from here on the Rock Bridge road. He 
then moved from there to Kickapoo Prairie, where I now live. 
He there entered 640 acres of land, on which I was born, and part 
of which I now own. I was born on the 12th day of July, 1836. 

My earliest remembrance of the inhabitants of Springfield is 
of one DeBruin, who had a store on the corner of College street 
and the Public Square, where the old court house now stands. 
The next building was the State Bank, located on the corner of 
Boonville street and the Public Square. On the northeast corner 
of Boonville street and the Square, General N. R. Smith operated 
a hotel. The next house was Jacob Painter's gunsmith shop, lo- 
cated where Reps Dry Goods Store now stands. The next house 



8 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

was over on the south side of St. Louis street and the corner of 
the Square, occupied by D. D. Berry's store. The next house 
was at the southeast corner of the Public Square, owned by Ben- 
jamin Andrews, and occupied as a grocery, confectionery and 
bread store. The next house was at the southeast corner of 
South street and the Public Square, where Sheppard & Jaggard 
ran a store. Right across from the latter store was a log house 
where Braddoek Coleman occupied a building as a saloon. The 
next house was Judge Farmer's store, in which was located the 
postoffice, at that time, about where the O'Day Book Store now 
stands. The next house was the Rube Blakey saloon, situated 
on the west side of the Square, in the southwest corner, being a 
building about 12 feet by 14 feet square, where the O'Day Cloth- 
ing Store now stands. There was nothing else on the west side 
of the Square at that time except the Blakey saloon. These are 
all the houses on the Public Square when I first came here that 
I can remember. 

My mother's brother. Judge James Dollison, came here with 
my father. Judge Dollison entered 160 acres of public land, the 
southwest corner of which was Dollison and Cherry streets. My 
cousin, Mrs. Sample Orr, inherited one-fourth of that land, and 
she offered it to me for $2,000 in 1866. I have since purchased 
a lot 75 feet by 185 feet cut out of that tract, for which I paid 
$1,600, having made the purchase 25 years later. 

Junius Campbell and my father and James Blakey owned the 
only farms then occupied between my house and Springfield on 
the Kickapoo Prairie. This constituted all the farms there were 
on Kickapoo Prairie at that time. James Dollison planted the 
first orchard that was ever planted in Greene County. I can re- 
member when my mother rode over on horseback and brought 
home apples in her apron from that orchard and we thought that 
those were the best apples ever grown, for they tasted long and 
rich. 

In those days we went to Cason's Mil], where the James 
River bridge is now located near Galloway. The Yoakum mill 
was then in existence, but there was no mill at the Jones Spring 
at that time. Old Uncle Bennie Bashears at Beaver Gap had a 
corn cracker, which consisted of two little stones of about a foot 
or 18 inches across, and those old stones were lying about there in 



OF OLD SETTLERS 9 

that neighborhood a few years ago. But neither the Fulbright 
nor the mill at Jones Spring had been built at that time. The 
Cason Mill is the oldest mill that I know of. The next mill to 
be built was at the Jones Spring and also the Lawson Fulbright 
Mill. 

The earliest remembrances that I have of the inhabitants is 
that of Mr. Nick Smith, who run a tavern on Boonville street, and 
old man Andrews and DeBruin and Jake Painter. I also remem- 
ber Wilson Hackney, the old hatter, who lived on South street; 
also Peter Epperson and Braddock Coleman; also a man by the 
name of Peck, who lived right where George McDaniels' house 
now stands ; also Wash Merritt, who bought that place and taught 
school there. That was the only house there was out that direc- 
tion just then. On College street there was Allen Fielden, who 
lived down here some where. Maj. Berry lived down there in a 
little double log house. That was the only house there was on the 
south side of College street, and there was none at all on the north 
side except Presley Beal and Jake Mills. On Boonville street 
there was Nick Smith and Joe Burden, whom I have already men- 
tioned. Burden afterwards lived on St. Louis street. Old Cap- 
tain A. M. Julian's carding machine was located on Boonville 
street, as was also the old blacksmith, Jenkins ; he was on the hill 
on the south side of Jordan. There was nobody else on that side 
of the street out that way. 

The grandfather of Jimmie Edwards lived on the hill on the 
west side of Boonville street. Eli Armstrong's step-father had 
a tan yard right where the bridge is now. It was known as the 
Jessup tan yard. At that time there were no residences on the 
north end of Boonville street. 

I also remember old Captain Massey. He bought the im- 
provements of Mr. Warren here. He was one of the oldest set- 
tlers that I can remember on Kickapoo Prairie. 

I have preserved all this time a copy of a contract between 
Mr. Samuel Teas and certain citizens, which I will submit for 
its antiquity: 

"Article of Agreement made by Samuel Teas on the one part, 
and we the undermentioned subscribers of the other part, Wit- 
nesseth : 



10 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

That the said Samuel Teas, on his first part, agrees to teach 
a common, moral, English school, to the best of his capacity, to 
teach six months, Saturdays and Sundays excepted, to teach in 
the school house near Mr. John Haskins ; the said Teas binds him- 
self to keep good order and regulation in this school. We the 
assigners on our part promise to pay the said Teas, for his ser- 
vices, six dollars for each pupil by us assigned, and to pay one- 
half of our subscription at the end of the first three months, the 
balance at the end of the school, and to make the school house 
comfortable to teach in, &c., &c. We, the teacher and subscrib- 
ers farther agrees that there shall be three Trustees appointed 
for the school, who shall have the power to regulate and settle 
all disputes, or difficulties which may arise in the school, and 
should the teacher neglect or not do his duty, the Trustees shall 
have the power to close the school by first paying him for the 
time he may have taught. We, the teacher and subscribers do 
agree in all cases to abide by the decision of the Trustees. Wit- 
ness our hands, &c., the school to commence on the day of 

the 1841. Samuel Teas. 

No. $ cts 

Jeremiah Cravens „3 18 00 

A. Britten _ „ _ II/2 9 00 

Danl Prigmore „ _ 2 12 00 

James Byrd „ 1 1 00 

E. W. Beasley 3 18 00 

Benjamin Thomas „ 1 6 00 

John F. Mills I1/2 9 00 

Abraham Fisher „ „ 3 18 00 

Berry Durham „ y^ 3 00 

John Haskins 2 12 00 

Thomas F. Thompson 11/2 9 00 

Edw. L. Dillon _ „2 12 00 

Saml W. Mann 1 6 00 

P. S. — ^Be it farther understood that the said Samuel Teas 
who is mentioned in the within Article further agrees that he 
will take one-third of the amount assigned by each subscriber in 
any suitable trade to be paid to the said Teas when called for 
and delivered to him at his place of residence at the market price 



OF OLD SETTLERS 11 

of the country. Be it also understood by the assigners and 
teacher that no day scholars will be admitted to come to this 
school, neither shall any assigners to this article send at any time 
day scholars without it should be to make up lost time, &c. 

Samuel Teas. 

I will teach the school if there be twenty-five pupils assigned 
CO this Article. S. Teas." 



CAPT. JOHN LAWSON HOLLAND 

I came to this country in 1841, about the 10th of November. 
I came from Tennessee. I lived on the line between Kentucky 
and Tennessee. I came into this city on St. Louis street. One 
of the first residences that I can recollect on St. Louis street was 
Dr. Shackelford's, who lived east of Dollison street, which was 
then out in the country. After passing Dr. Shackleford's com- 
ing into town, the next residence was John S. Kimbrough's. 
Next to him was old Uncle James R. Danforth ; then came old 
man Shannon, who had a hotel on the south side of St. Louis 
street where the Opera House now stands. That is all there was 
at that time up to the corner, where Berry had a store. I heard 
Mr, Thompson's statement of the residences and early citizens 
of the city and they are about the ones I recollect. There was 
nothing on the southeast corner of the Square except the places 
that Mr. Thompson has already mentioned; there was, however, 
a man named David 0. George, who had a house there which has 
since been known as the Braddock Coleman place. Afterwards 
the old log cabin that the General and myself bought was built. 

The Square was just about the way Mr. Thompson described 
it when I came here. Major Berry lived on College street on 
the south side, and Beal lived on the north side. Joel Haden had 
the land office on the north side of the place occupied by De- 
Bruin. On Boonville street there was a hotel run by a man 
named Smith, and old man Edwards lived on the west side. The 
old log jail was located on the east side of the street. For about 
twenty years I don't think there was a man put into it. We had 
no use for a jail. It was an old double log jail ; however, there 



12 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

was one man named Shanks who was placed in there for murder 
and he cut out of jail and escaped, and never was apprehended. 
These streets leading from the Square were named on ac- 
count of the direction of the main travel in early days, between 
the towns from which we received our supplies. For instance, 
Boonville was the name given the road because of the travel be- 
tween Boonville, Missouri, and Springfield. St. Louis street was 
given that name on account of it being the main St. Louis road. 
College street was so named because of the establishment of a 
college on that street. South street was so named on account of 
its general direction. 

The first church built in Springfield was built in 1833 or '34, 
and is standing now. It is the oldest in the city now in exist- 
ence. It was occupied in early days by preachers of different 
denominations. The court house was also used for the purposes 
of worship, different denominations occupying it on alternate 
Sundays. 

The first court house that Greene County had was an old log 
house, which was torn down before I came here. 

I think when I came here that the population of the town on 
the original fifty-acre tract would not exceed 200. 

I think I can remember the name of every man who then 
lived within the corporate limits. 

I might say further that I have two pieces of furniture, an 
old chair and an old bureau, that was made here in the city many, 
many years ago. The bureau has been in my family some sixty- 
three or sirty-four years, and it is a strong piece of furniture to- 
day. It was made by Pressley Beal, who then had a shop on the 
corner of College street and Patton alley. The chair I have had 
some fifty years. It was made by Mr. Shockley's father, and I 
kept it as a memory of my early association with those gentle- 
men. 

As I have frequently been interrogated about the punish- 
ment adminstered to Samuel Glover, who was a worthless fellow 
who hung about the drinking places of the town, I have always 
refused to give any information upon the subject further than to 
say that he was punished and that he was told what his punish- 
ment was for. Mr. Hubble has quizzed me so thoroughly on the 



OF OLD SETTLERS 13 

subject that I will tell just this much of the circumstance. This 
man had a very pretty girl some fifteen or sixteen years of aj^e, 
and she apparently had very little of the care that was due from 
her father. On one occasion she was given a calico dress by 
some of the good women of the town, and it was noticed that she 
never appeared with it on. Upon inquiry of the girl about the 
matter, she was forced to admit that her father had taken it away 
from her and had pawned it for drink. Sometime thereafter, 
search was made for this recreant gentleman, and he was found 
in a nearby place of drink in the old Baker Arcade, and he was 
escorted down the hill, and after a few minutes' entertainment 
the gentleman was permitted to make his escape. I again re- 
fuse to admit that I took any part in it, or to name those who 
did. Promises made even at that early date will hold good yet. 
I never admitted or undertook to tell anybody about it. I have 
been asked if he ever robbed his family any more. I can say in 
good faith that I don't think he ever did while he lived in this 
vicinity. 

While I was in school in Tennessee, I got into a little trouble 
and was punished for it. About twenty years ago my wife and 
myself went back to old Tennessee to make a visit to my early 
home. "We were driving along in a road in a buggy, and in 
passing through the country not far from my old home we came 
to a farm with a spring near by, and I requested the driver to 
stop, as I wanted to get a drink of water. An elderly lady came 
to the gate when we drove up, and I told her that I would be glad 
to get a drink of water from the spring. She asked me to wait 
until she could bring fresh water from the spring. I says, "No, 
you need not do that." I says, "Where is your husband?" She 
says, "He is out in the field." I says, "I should like to see him 
very much. Your husband whipped me once." She at once be- 
came very much excited and agitated, and I asked her again if 
I might be permitted to see him, and it seemed to worry her so 
much I said to her: "Madam, you need not feel worried about 
the matter, as I was just a boy in school when he whipped me, 
and I am very anxious to see him." She realized the fact that 
it was a school-boy frolic and insisted upon my waiting until she 
could call him, but I told her that I had not time, as I was going 
to a nearby neighbor. 



14 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

I am pretty well acquainted with the people who lived here 
when I came here and soon got well acquainted through business 
relation with the people of the country. I sold goods to the peo- 
ple here and extended more or less credit up to the beginning of 
the war. I believe the only outstanding account that I had when 
I closed business was one account amounting to $1.25, and I had 
numerous promises from the man to pay that.. I frequently 
dunned him, and finally he came into the store with a fine new 
knife one day and wanted to trade knives. He selected a knife 
which pleased his fancy, and I offered in exchange to take his 
knife and give him six bits to boot. I handed him my knife and 
took his knife and put it in my pocket. I made no offer of the 
six bits. He saw that I had omitted to give him the boot money, 
and he says, "You haven't paid me yet." I remarked to him, 
"You just owed me $1.25, and we will just square that account," 
and in that way I collected my last account. 



FRANCIS MARION SHOCKLEY 

I came to Springfield in 1841 with my father and the family 
from Giles County, Tennessee. As to any further statement I 
can only just say that I acquiesce in the statements made by 
Mr. Holland and the other gentlemen in every particular in re- 
gard to the buildings, improvements and the location of resi- 
dences in this city, except perhaps that I remember Mr. E. M. 
Bearden and Mr. Henry Matlock. They lived over where the 
McGregor warehouse now stands. 



J. F. BROWN 

I arrived here about February 14th, 1853, at 10 a. m. Came 
from Tennessee by way of Berryville, Ark. Stopped at Gen. N. 
R. Smith Hotel, board $1.50 per week. Shortly after my arrival, 
I noticed a crowd collected in the south side of the Public Square. 
They were laughing and making considerable noise. On inquiry 
as to the cause, the General informed me they were burning Rube 
Blakey's whiskey. 



OF OLD SETTLERS 15 

William Ross from Illinois was here, making temperance 
speeches, and Rube had been converted, and the evening before 
joined the Sons of Temperance. 

You old citizens all remember the nice times we had, many 
beautiful and lovely girls, sociables on every Thursday evening, 
which were open to all; respectable young men were eligible, if 
they respected themselves ; money did not count. Those men with 
a taint were given to understand "not wanted." If any man had 
dared to insult one of our girls, Springfield would have been a 
hard road for him to travel. The young men were the girls' pro- 
tectors. 

These same young men visited the sick and nursed them if 
needed; any person in town sick we all heard of it. A stranger 
visiting taken sick, was looked after and the best of care given 
him ; if in distress financially the boys went down in their pockets. 

Two hundred and fifty was the number of inhabitants claimed 
on my arrival. Court house in center of Square. Jail on Boon- 
ville street, near "Water, built of logs. When occupied. Uncle 
Ev. Hollingsworth had the care of the unfortunate in the 
"Stable," as Judge Chas. S. Yancy dubbed it. 

The preceding statements so nearly cover the situation that 
I've nothing to add. Actual count of heads of families living in 
Springfield, Mo., March 31, 1853, 280 ; singe men, 36 ; total pop- 
ulation of Springfield on that date, 316. 



JOHN M. WOODS 

I was born in Rockford City, Illinois, having moved from 
there when I was two weeks old, in a two-foot snow, and went to 
Tennessee, and was raised in the corner of Giles, Lawrence and 
Maury Counties, Tennessee. My father owned a cotton factory 
in that country and sold it in the year 1851. He came to this 
country and bought property here and returned in 1852, and in 
1853 he moved with his family to this country. 

When I came here there was quite an improvement on the 
Public Square to the condition narrated by these gentlemen pre- 
ceding me. Beginning at College street and going north, Mr. 
DeBruin had the stand that has been spoken of, and between 



16 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

that and the next business place was the business house of Farrier 
& "Weaver, for whom Uncle Jesse Kelly was clerking. The first 
time I ever saw Jesse Kelly he was clerking and tailoring. The 
first time I ever remember seeing him he was sewing up a pair 
of fine pants for himself. The next house north of that was 
Fielden's, and then on the north side I don't think there was 
anything more until you got to the bank building ; yes, however, 
there was a little house where the Lancet was published, a news- 
paper edited first by Mr. Davis and afterwards by Mr. Boren. 
Then the next on the east side of Boonville street were about the 
locations that Mr. Thompson has already mentioned. Painter 
was on the corner, and on the corner of St. Louis street the old 
Temperance Hall was built, a two-story brick. From St. Louis 
street south to the corner of the Square I don't think there was 
anything in addition to what Mr. Thompson has mentioned ex- 
cept that somebody occupied a drug store in there, and Dr. 
Shackleford had a dry goods store there. On the south side of 
the Square from the Andrews place to South street, there was a 
little house that nobody has mentioned that old man Troger had ; 
he had a little stand in there. I know I came in one day, and as 
I was going in there with Wiley Roper to get some crackers, the 
old counter was lined up with men with guns and pistols and it 
looked like war times. McAdams had a business house on the 
west side, and Rube Blakey's place was on the corner of College 
and the Square. He had a gallery there. Those are about the 
additions that I remember on the Square. 

There were two churches here when I came, the Christian 
church on College street and the Methodist church here that has 
been spoken of, and a Presbyterian church was being built on 
Jefferson street south of Walnut. There was also the Stevens 
brick school house on Benton avenue and Water street. Mr. 
Carlton had his college here and was teaching; that was on the 
south side of the Mt. Vernon road, which was afterwards named 
College street, after the establishment of his college. Those are 
two of the additions that I remember to the Square and the im- 
mediate streets. There was the Bailey House on South street 
and then the Lyon House constructed in its stead on the east side 
of South street. Then there was Wilson Hackney's place next, 
and those were all the business houses there in that direction, as 



OF OLD SETTLERS 17 

I remember it. David 0, George had some kind of a business, I 
think, back off of the street, or he might have perhaps lived there. 
There was an old log house where the Christian church now 
stands made from white oak logs and weather-boarded. 

I have been frequently asked about the number of people 
living here about that time. Now, people generally in talking 
about it, ask me, how many people are there here? Of course 
they would go by the old fifty-acre tract. As a rule everybody 
lived on what they called a lot. They didn't have over an acre 
or two acres of ground at that time and they were regarded as 
living in the town, and they claimed a population of 500, and I 
should think that they had that many. 

On Grand Prairie there was the Bragg place, and the Uncle 
Joe Rountree place ; William White was opening a place, and the 
John Rountree place; the Bill Tatum place; the John Young 
place; the old man Postum place west of the Young place, and 
the Potter place, and the Weaver place ; the William Massey place 
and the Buck Rountree place, and the Bill Robberson place, and 
my father's place. Those constituted all the farms on the prairie, 
and all the rest of the prairie was open and vacant. 

I remember that on the day after the battle of Wilson Creek, 
on Sunday morning, I got on my horse to go down to the battle 
ground, and I struck a bee line as straight as I could go through 
the prairie, and I never let down a fence, or went through any- 
body's gate from the old Weaver farm to the battleground. 
There was not a farm on the way from there to the battleground, 
a distance of about eight miles. 



J. L. CARSON 

I was born and raised in Tennessee and got to Springfield, 
Missouri, July 29th, 1855. 

I found the manufacturing and mechanical "plants" then in 
Springfield to be first in amount of output. John Lair, who had a 
blacksmith and wagon shop at the northwest corner of Jefferson 
and St. Louis streets. There nearly all the plows and wagons 
were made and repaired. I don't remember the number of 
"fires" he then run, but later he run from four to eight "fires" 



18 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

and later made "stocks" and used leather belting and could shoe 
100 mules a day if the driver was in a hurry. Lair's "Prairie 
Breaker" was known for 100 miles and required from four to 
six yoke of oxen to pull it through the tough roots of the prairie 
sod. 

Wm. Mc Adams' saddlery and harness shop was where the 
ten cent store now is. He had several journeymen and appren- 
tices all working hard and steadily from ten to fifteen hours a 
day. All overwork was paid for at regular rates, and there was 
no strikes nor discontent. 

Presle}^ Beal had a "cabinet shop" at the northwest corner 
of College and Patton alley, where bedsteads, bureaus, etc., were 
made so strong and good that there are some of them now in 
the city, apparently as good as ever. At the northwest corner 
of Mill and Boonville, Thos. Jessup had a tan yard, where the 
leather used by people was largely made. 

A little further north, on the opposite side of Boonville street, 
was Capt. Julian's "carding machine," a very important part of 
our industrial life, and the old ox and the "tread wheel" that 
furnished the motive power was kept steadily at work during 
the carding machine's season. 

Wilson Hackney had a hatter shop a little north of the cor- 
ner of Walnut and South streets, and there he made hats that 
lasted so long that sometimes the owners got tired of them. 

Uncle Jake Painter had a gunsmith shop in the northeast 
corner of the Square. It was an important factor in our early 
life. He made and repaired rifles and "Jake's Best," a single 
barrel pistol, was a necessity to all who crossed the plains. The 
"hammer" was on the underside of the barrel and all were 
"sighted and trained" before leaving the shop. He was a gen- 
ial old gentleman and lived to a ripe old age. 

In closing, I say I feel some responsibility for these pleasant 
reunions, because I introduced our host to his good wife, and a 
few weeks- later I had the pleasure of standing by his side when 
he made his vow to honor, love and OBEY Mary J, Powell. How 
well he has kept his vow only she can know, but, judging from 
her appearance, wearing her 67 years without a gray hair in her 
head, I have a right to believe he has kept his promise fairly well. 



OF OLD SETTLERS 19 

J. THOMPSON WALKER 

I came to this county on the 12th day of November, 1855. 
I was born in Bedford County, Tennessee. I came here alone. 
There was quite an improvement in the situation here in 1855, 
from what has been detailed by the other gentlemen present. 
There were a great many additions to the city at that time. Mc- 
Querter had a hotel on the corner of the Square and Boonville, 
and there was a little house on the other side which was used as ^ 
stage office. That was where the bank is now. The next was the 
old Danforth Temperance Hall, and after you passed Berry's store 
there was a little frame building that Ben Smith had a barber shop 
in; then came Andrews, Shackleford and McElhany, and a little 
house where Mrs. Worrel's building is. There was a little log 
office between it and Sheppard & Kimbrough's store that was 
used for a little office. After you passed Sheppard 's store and 
across from South street on the other corner, was the Braddock 
Colman saloon. On the east side of the Square I don't believe 
there was any addition to the buildings named by Mr. Thompson. 
On the west side of the Square, Circle had a clothing store north 
of McAdams' shop. I remember that he had a lawsuit and had 
Circle for a witness, and Mr. Haun was an attorney on the op- 
posite side, and Circle swore to a certain state of facts, and when 
it came time for Haun to cross-examine him, he says : 

Mr. Circle, you say so and so? Answer. Yes. 

Ques. How do you know that ; did you see it? Ans. No, sir. 

Ques. Well, how do you know it? Ans. Hugh Hunt told me. 

Ques. Well, then, you don't know it? Ans. Oh, yes, I do. 

Ques. How do you know? Ans. Why, Hugh Hunt told 

me so. 

And they never did get anything else out of him, and the 
matter was submitted to the jury upon that statement. 



A. H. WILSON 

I was born the 21st day of July, 1835, near Murfreesboro, 
Tenn. Came to Springfield in 1854, arriving November 5, after 
a trip of about seven weeks, having left the old home September 
18th. We camped— my father's family— four or five days on 



20 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

what is now St. Louis street, on the lot now occupied by the resi- 
dence of Harry Silsby. The first acquaintance made was with 
Marion Shockley, who lived on the opposite side of the road from 
our camp. Also made the acquaintance of Peter C. King (who 
afterwards was sheriff of Greene County), Jno. S. Kimbro and 
Samuel Jopes. These gentlemen came to our camp to welcome 
our arrival, as if we were old friends. In those days there was 
no need of the formality of an introduction. Every citizen was 
the friend of each newcomer as long as he proved to be deserv- 
ing. If a man was honest and industrious no questions were 
asked about his past possessions, or whether he was college bred 
or what church he attended, or the thousand and one questions 
now asked. 

The citizens of Springfield and Greene County of that day 
were generally men of education, much of it self-acquired in the 
rude struggle of pioneer life. They were well read upon all the 
questions relating to the welfare of the nation. In the U. S. 
Senate Thos. H. Benton once affirmed that "Springfield contained 
more men familiar with leading political questions of the day 
than any other 40 acres of the State of Missouri," and I suppose 
he was not far out of the way. 

Jno. Lair was also an acquaintance made at our camp. AVe 
had a hack with a broken iron axle, which I took to his shop on 
St. Louis street for repairs, and foolishly asked him if he could 
mend it. He replied, "I can mend anything, young man." He 
was a shrewd business man and a good and upright citizen, who 
lived by the Golden Rule. As an instance, I heard Bedford Hen- 
slee relate a business transaction with him. He and Mr. Henslee 
had some dealing together in which there was due Mr. Henslee 
a balance of several hundred dollars on an open account, which 
had run for several months, and when settlement was made, in- 
terest was computed and scrupulously paid as if the claim had 
been secured by an interest-bearing note. Mr. Lair did much 
for the advancement and upbuilding of Springfield. In connec- 
tion with Monroe Ingram, in 1858, he established the first foun- 
dry and machine shop in the city. It did not prove much of a 
success, but showed his spirit of enterprise. Many others could 
be named who helped to boost Springfield in that early day. 



OF OLD SETTLERS 21 

The enterprise that did most to push Springfield to the front 
in those days and give her a conspicuous place on the map of the 
nation was the Overland Mail Route, which was the forerunner 
of the Southern Pacific Railroad. This was accomplished by the 
arduous and unceasing efforts of the late Governor Jno. S. Phelps 
while in Congress. After the passage of the law, there was a very 
strong "pull" for the location of the point of departure for the 
Pacific Coast. Aaron V. Brown of Tennessee, President Buchan- 
an's postmaster general, insisted that Memphis should be the 
starting point, while Governor Phelps and many prominent Mis- 
sourians insisted on St. Louis. "While Gov. Phelps was in the 
west looking over the proposed route, the postmaster general was 
using every effort for Memphis. Gov. Phelps was hastily sum- 
Jiioned to Vs^ashington, where, after a long and heated discussion, 
t]ie matter was compromised with one line from Memphis — the 
other from St. Louis. The franchise or contract was awarded to 
Jno. Butterfield of New York, a life-long stage man of very lim- 
ited education, but a man of wonderful energy and a prince of 
organizers. When he arrived in Springfield to look out a loca- 
tion for barn and shops, he created a great interest. Major D. 
D. Berry banqueted him and had many prominent citizens to meet 
liim. He was a short, thick man, and it being warm weather he 
v;ore on the streets a linen duster down to his heels. A good 
luany young men about town got Butterfield Coats, among them 
Brannon Woodson, Billy Hornbeak, Jake Shultz, Jack Leathers 
and others. The fad was short lived. I think they were all dis- 
carded before frost. 

Mr. Butterfield established his barn and shops on the lots 
now occupied by the Reps Dry Goods Co., and part of the lot 
covered by the Heer Dry Goods Co. Part of the property was 
owned by Jake Painter on which was his gunsmith shop. Mr. 
Butterfield was a man of few words, and approaching Mr. Painter 
said: "I want to buy your lot." Mr. Painter asked: "What 
will you give?" The answer was, "One thousand dollars." Mr. 
Painter replied, "I will give you the deed tomorrow," and the 
transaction was closed, which I suppose is the shortest real estate 
deal ever made in Springfield. 

Mr. Painter moved his shop to his home lot on the corner of 
Olive street and Patton alley, and it is said he was never again 



22 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

seen on the Public Square. I, myself, do not remember to have 
seen him away from his shop in the thirty years he lived in 
Springfield, after he moved from the Square. 

It was a red letter day for Springfield, about the middle of 
August, 1858, when the first Overland coach arrived. The busi- 
ness houses were decorated, and men, women and children were 
out on the Public Square in force. If my memory serves me 
right, three coaches came in together — horses and coaches decor- 
ated with flags and ribbons, bugles sounding and horses came up 
Boonville hill at a gallop. Young Jno. Butterfield was on the 
first coach, and it was said he made the entire trip through to 
California, but of course he was relieved for rest and sleep. The 
trip took about twenty-one days, 

"When Horace Greely of the Tribune and Sam Bowles of the 
Springfield, Mass., Republican came through Springfield in Sep- 
tember, 1859, there was quite a turn-out to welcome them, but 
they were only here for a few minutes. 

Warren H. Graves, who had taken much interest in establish- 
ing the line, on every trip received a bundle of daily papers that 
gave the later news than came in the regular mails, and there was 
always a rush to see the latest papers, and the interest never 
flagged as long as the mail was continued. Among the people 
who were most persistent to get the news were W. B. Logan, Jno. 
S. Kimbro and Col. M, Oliver. 

There was always a crowd to welcome the coaches' arrival 
from either east or west; there was seldom a trip that did not 
bring one or more prominent men on the passenger list. 

The saddest time came when in June, 1861, every day brought 
two or three coaches from the west, with a string of horses and 
men going north. And when the great war began in earnest the 
glory of the Overland Mail had departed forever. 



JESSE M. KELLY 

My father settled in this county in the year 1837. I was born 
in 1830 in Greene County, Tenn. My father settled some twenty 
miles northwest of Springfield near "Walnut Grove, within three 
miles of where the city of "Walnut Grove is situated. My father's; 



OF OLD SETTLERS 23 

name was George W. Kelly. He represented this county in the 
State Legislature for one term and was twice sheriff of this county. 
My father, with his family, passed through Springfield and 
moved to the place heretofore indicated, and I did not again see 
Springfield until I was fifteen or sixteen years old. 

I have heard the statement of Mr. Thompson as to the loca- 
tion of business houses and residences, and of the early inhabi- 
tants of Springfield, and my remembrance of those things is 
about the same as he has narrated, with the exception that later I 
remember that Dr. Shackleford ran a store on the east side of the 
Square ; also that Mr. McAdams had a harness shop on the west 
side of the Square. C. B. and J. L. Holland had a clothing store 
and tailor shop on the west side of the Square, located the next 
door to McAdams. 

My father located northwest of this city about twenty miles 
when all of this country was prairie out in this northwestern di- 
rection and which was unoccupied, all of what is now called 
Grand and Leepers Prairies, and there were no roads through 
the county, excepting there was an old Indian trace that ran 
from a place below here on the creek that was called Delaware- 
town, which came by a little to the west of Springfield, and 
crossed the Osage river at the point where Osceola now stands, 
and on into the country to the northwest to a place called Har- 
mony Mission; also known as the "Big Road." It had been trav- 
eled until there were paths for the teams and wagon. My father 
built his cabin close to this road at a little spring. No man in 
those days would settle in this country unless he had a spring 
of running water. The next thing of importance to him, and for 
which he sought, was timber. They seemed to be rather sus- 
picious of this prairie land. They did not know whether it would 
grow corn and oats or not. It never had grown any timber, and 
coming from a woodland country in Tennessee and North Car- 
olina, where they didn't know how to make a field unless they 
hewed it out of the forest instead of fencing in the prairie, they 
would go down on a spring branch and chop out and grub and 
clear three or four acres of ground for a field, which would cost 
them more labor than it would have to build a forty-acre field 
in a prairie. 



24 . PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

The neighbors were from one to three miles apart, and de- 
pendent altogether on where the Creator had planted springs for 
a settlement. The country then was full of game. Deer by the 
herds, and wild turkeys by the flock, and bands of wolves, and 
occasionally a panther, and a bear, or a wild cat, or catamount, 
as we called them, were found. It was a big heavy cat with a 
short tail, perhaps what Roosevelt now calls the Bob cat. The 
men had plenty of leisure in those days, and notwithstanding 
their privations, visited each other a great deal. A man would 
walk two or three miles to a neighbor's to see how they were 
getting along. No man left his house or went to his neighbor's 
without carrying his old flint lock four-foot rifle. I guess a 
stranger coming into a country and seeing a man visiting that 
way would have thought it was hardly safe to remain here. It 
would seem that everybody here was up in arms, but they didn't 
carry their guns to protect themselves against mankind, or to 
attack a man, but they didn't know but they might run into a 
wolf, or might come across a panther, or something of that kind, 
and if they hadn't meat at home they would kill a deer as they 
went home. I have known my father to pass by a herd of deer 
where there were sometimes twenty in a bunch, where he was 
near enough to shoot, and might have selected the particular deer 
he wanted to kill, and never take his gun off his shoulder. We 
had meat enough at home. 

Every family had its little cotton patch and its little flax 
patch ; also a little flock of sheep, and the women folks made 
their wearing apparel at home. The man, for every day wear, 
wore brown jeans, sometimes called butternut, in our days, but 
he always had a Sunday suit which his wife had made for him of 
indigo hhie, and when he got that on he could strut. The women 
folks made their own dresses. They spun their cotton, dyed the 
colors, and they had blue and pale blue, and white and copperas, 
striped or checked, as fancy pleased them, and when a woman 
could get a few threads of turkey red woven into her dress, when 
she got that on she could strut. 

The grass of the prairies grew very tall, and what paths 

there were through the prairies had gradually been worn down 

by deer and buffalo, and perhaps originally started by the In- 

•Jans, so that if there was any decline to carry off soil it was 



OF OLD SETTLERS 25 

washed down perhaps a foot or so, and the grass would grow up 
so tall that you could not see the paths; it would just fall over 
and cover them. I have gone with my trousers wet way above 
the knees along these paths from the dew in the morning hunt- 
ing my horses to plow, as we turned them out every night on 
the grass. In the fall of the year, when the grass would be dry 
and a fire would get started, if the wind was high, it would take 
a pretty fleet horse to keep out of the way. 

From where my father built his house, his first cabin, to 
where he made his little field in the edge of the prairie, it was 
about half a mile away, and the ground was covered with prairie 
grass the same as on the prairies, but here and there was a large 
oak tree. He kept the fire out of that for protection, and it grew 
in sprouts. The next year or two they had grown to bushes, and 
then got to be saplings, and the last time I saw that timber over 
forty years ago, it would have made six rails to the cut. That 
is how the timber grows in this country, 

A man thought in those days that he must have 100 acres of 
timber to every forty acres of prairie. But the timber grew 
fast, and then it could not be disposed of. 

Now, in respect to the houses that people built in those days, 
they were made of rough logs and usually about sixteen feet 
square. There wasn't a nail in them nor a piece of iron. They 
were what we called rib and weight pole roofs. The ribs were 
laid lengthwise to hold the boards, and the boards were laid on 
ribs and the weight poles were laid on the boards to hold them 
down. The doors were made of clapboards similar to those on the 
roof, generally four feet long and nearly a foot wide. They made 
a good roof, and the doors were hung on wooden hinges. They 
had a wooden latch on the inside with a string tied to it and a 
hole above it, and the string hung on the outside. If you were 
outside and wanted to get in, all you had to do was to pull the 
string, and I suppose that is the origin of the phrase that the 
"latch string hangs on the outside." The sleeping arrangements 
in those cabins consisted merely of what we called a one-post 
bedstead. That is to say, a post was placed in the floor and an 
auger hole was bored in the wall on one side and into the wall on 
the opposite corner, and poles were placed in those holes extend- 
ing across to the upward pole, and boards were laid across, and 



26 PERSONAL BEMINISCENCES 

on top of that we had a straw tick. We also had what we called 
a trundle bed, which was built low enough to be pushed under 
this bed which was to be used by the children, and in our house 
there was three of us children, and we could all lie with our 
heads in one way upon the bed. After a while there was another 
one sent down from the big bed, and there were four of us. 
Then we had to turn, two heads one way and two the other way, 
and our feet went in between each other. After a while, when 
there got to be five of us in the trundle bed, and we could not 
be fitted in that way, we had to be put crossways, and I, being 
the oldest boy, by that time I was too long, and I had to either let 
my head hang out on one side or my feet on the other, and I 
guess I let my feet hang out the most, for they are bigger than 
my head, and that accounts for the wearing of a number nine 
shoe instead of a number seven. 

I will tell you, gentlemen, those sturdy old industrious pio- 
neers had more energy, more grit, and more sand than money, and 
they opened up this country and built up its commerce; they 
with their wives, those women who made personal sacrifices and 
endured the greatest of hardships, they are the parents of a race 
of people that cannot be excelled anywhere in the world. They 
were as noble as Spartans; and amongst their descendants we 
might pick out men of learning and men of genius. I don't 
want to call names of the old pioneers, because I would have to 
leave some of them unmentioned; they were all alike. I say 
among the descendants of those people we might pick out law- 
yers and lawmakers, doctors, school teachers, preachers, some 
politicians, and maybe, if some one was ambitious enough, that 
we might have found one among the number who could have 
taken Teddie's place. 

During those early days we had no schools. My mother 
taught four of us children how to read and spell at home. We 
had no chairs in the house except two that were tied to the rear 
end of the wagon when they moved from Tennessee, and the 
posts were worn half an inch deep from rubbing against the feed 
trough. My father split the timbers out, what we called punch- 
eons, and put legs in them for his children to sit on. Among 
those was one some five or six feet long. My mother would set 
us four children on a bench, and while she was about her cook- 



OF OLD SETTLERS 27 

ing and housework she would teach us, and if we found a word 
we could not spell we would put our finger on it and turn the 
book to her, and she would pronounce it for us, and we would 
go on. By that means we learned to read. 1 do not remember 
just when the free school system was organized in this country. 
We had at first a three months' school, commencing in the sum- 
mer, and the boys would go a few weeks after the corn was laid 
by, and after the school was closed the teacher had to wait for 
the trustees to make their return of his school and draw his 
money for it the following year. We seldom had the same teacher 
two years, and every teacher would turn the boys back in their 
books, and they were just as far as they were at school before. 
He turned them back, some to "Baker" and some to "Amity." 
These were the first words in the lessons of the old blue back 
speller. I know boys who had gone to school a little while each 
year, ten or twelve years, and could not read. 

I would like to speak of the things of which we were de- 
prived and which the younger people may think indispensible to 
business and comfort, and of our substitutes therefor ; we had no 
railroads, but we had our ox teams and horse teams which en- 
abled us to transport any of our products to market. We hauled 
our wheat to Boonville. We had no telegraph or telephone, but 
we had a substitute; we called it the "dinner horn." It was. 
made from the largest and longest ox horn and had a suitable 
mouthpiece carved in the small end with an opening to the hollow 
of the horn. Any woman or 10-year-old boy or girl could blow 
this horn so that it might be heard from one to three miles away. 
This horn was used to call the men from their work to breakfast, 
dinner or supper, but if heard at any other hour of the day or 
night it was known as a signal for help. 

Everybody knew the tone of every settler's horn, and when 
heard at any hour between meal hours, every man within hearing 
distance started at once for the cabin from where the summons 
came. The cabin might be surrounded by a pack of wolves, a 
panther or a wild cat might have been seen in a tree, some one 
might have been bitten by a snake, for snakes were numerous 
in those days, or a child might be lost in the woods, or a boy had 
fallen from a tree. 



28 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

Once my father was plowing, when a neighbor's dinner horn 
blew at an unusual hour, and in less time than it takes to tell it 
my father was astride the plow horse and off at a gallop to the 
cabin where the horn had blown. No roads, but everybody knew 
the location of the cabins by corners. 

We had no new-fangled harness in those days. Our harness 
was fastened with a leather strap with a knot on the end, it was 
passed through a hole in each side of the hames and with one 
turn below, the knot was brought around and tightened with a 
loop, and all you had to do was to give a jerk to the other end 
and the hames were opened and the horse walked out of his har- 
ness, and the driver was astride him in a minute. 

I have heard old men say, ''I would like to live my life over 
again, if I were allowed to correct mistakes,"' but I would like 
to go back to 1837 and come up through all the deprivations, la- 
bor, exposures, joys and disappointments, rather than to quit and 
go away. 

And now, may I wish that our friend, Martin J. Hubble, who 
has so kindly honored us with an invitation to meet and talk with 
him about old times, and all you old friends, if it were possible, 
may live as long as I would like to. 



HON. L. H. MURRAY 

The history of any country is that of her people. It would 
recognize along the corridors of past time persons whose marked 
individuality render them conspicuous among their fellows. 
That of Greene County presents here and there, such characters, 
wresting her wastes of land from nature's state; developing her 
latent resources or giving to her growth a fresh momentum by 
inviting immigration to her boundaries. 

Originally the Osage Indians occupied this part of Missouri. 
Then the Delawares from Ohio and Indiana, and the Kickapoos 
when being removed to their "reservation," were located here 
for a time. Old Bob Patterson settled in what was called Greene, 
now in Webster County, in 1821. John P. Campbell, John Ed- 
wards, William Fulbright, Joseph Miller, James Massey and 
others, with their families, settled in the vicinity of what is now 



OF OLD SETTLERS 29 

Springfield in 1829. John P. Campbell was one of the leading 
early settlers and the founder of Springfield, where he resided 
from the time of its first settlement till his death in 1849. Rad- 
ford Cannefax and family arrived in 1831. Judge Charles 
Yancey in 1830, and Joseph Burden and Joseph Rountree soon 
afterwards. The pioneer life of these first settlers was varied ; 
their experiences are full of reminiscences worthy of record. 
The journey to St. Louis (their source of most supplies) over 
mere bridle paths, often for necessaries of life, broke the 
monotony of frontier life. 

The county was organized January 2nd, 1833, and named in 
honor of General Nathaniel Greene of revolutionary renown. It 
then embraced nearly all the State south of the Osage river west 
of Phelps County. During the year 1834, John Mooney and 
Thomas Patterson, with their families, settled on James river, 
about seven miles south of Springfield. At the first election in 
1834, Joseph Weaver was sent to the Senate, J. D. Shannon to the 
House, and Chesley Cannefax was chosen sheriff. Springfield 
was selected as the county seat in 1836, at which time none of 
the lands were owned in fee, but all held alike as squatters. In 
1836 the first frame house was 'built by Benjamin Cannefax, and 
in 1837 the first bricks were burned and a chimney built there- 
from, which attracted general attention, being the first of that 
kind in the place. In 1839 the United States Land Office was 
opened at Springfield, but for a few years during the war it was 
removed to Boonville for safety, Joel Haden was the first re- 
ceiver and a Mr. Brown the first register, and Junius T. Camp- 
bell the first postmaster. 

The first court house was built in 1839 and burned in 1861. 
The present building situated on the west side of the Public 
Square was commenced before the war and was not completed 
until after its close. 

For several years after the settlers came, the Delaware 
Indians constituted by far the largest part of the inhabitants. 
They occupied beautiful lands surrounded by lovely groves of 
walnut, sycamore, etc., on the banks of Wilson creek. In 1840 
they reluctantly ceded the country to the U. S, Government, tak- 
ing in exchange lands near Kansas City, to which they at once 



30 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

removed. This opened the country for settlement and immigra- 
tion poured in rapidly. 

In the early days of our city it was the custom of the inhabi- 
tants to perch upon some of the many stumps in the middle of 
the Square and look afar off down the Old White River trace 
(now St. Louis street) and tell with perfect certainly an 
approaching cavalcade of Tennesseeans, Carolinians, Kentuckians, 
or Old Virginians. The Tennesseeans would be moving along in 
wagons with upturned wagon beds — loaded with precious white- 
headed children, as regular in height as stair-steps, drawn by two 
horses and a mule spike. The Carolinians would be straddled on 
mules and jacks. Tennesseeans alM^ays had a grease bucket to 
lubricate the running gear part of the wagons; Carolinians had 
tar buckets, filled with Carolina pine tar, to heal up the bruises 
and grow the hair tight on the naked places of their dumb brutes. 
Tennesseeans were bareheaded, barefooted, and wore copper- 
colored breeches, with legs run through about a foot and a half 
too far; Carolinians, high quartered black leather shoes, and 
were afraid of snakes. A flintlock gun and a dog of the 
"Sooner" kind always was a part of Old Virginians. This was 
seventy-five years ago and but few of these witnesses are now 
living. Jacob Painter was one, however, whose memory was not 
treacherous, and in his old age could look upon the historic 
panorama of Springfield, and paint in simple and interesting 
colors to the edification of all who love the early history of their 
home. Jacob was a natural born angler, and many years ago 
would while away the whole of a Sabbath day on the banks of 
the Jordan with a pin hook and a pawpaw pole without a nibble, 
which, however, never discomfited his placid and even temper. 
There being no churches and houses of worship then, he regarded 
this not only harmless, but a beautiful study of one part of the 
great book of Nature. The smallpox came to Springfield one 
time and Jacob took to the brush. After many weeks he cau- 
tiously returned and was surprised to find so many people still 
living. 

The early Democrats of Southwest Missouri sent John S. 
Phelps to Congress; Burton A. James to the Senate; John W. 
Hancock to the Legislature ; made General Nicholas R. Smith, 
known to the country then as "Old Skip," a major general of 



OF OLD SETTLERS " 31 

militia; Charles S. Yancey, a circuit judge; Joel Haden, register 
of the land office, and Robert J. McElhany, postmaster. These 
men were the Democratic leaders in this portion of the State. 

Father Haden was the organizer of the Christian Church in 
Southwest Missouri, and in the latter part of July of each year, 
one week before the election, all Christians attended the pro- 
tracted meeting of Father Haden, and for many years that meet- 
ing decided the election. Father Haden aspired to the guberna- 
torial chair of the State in 1846, and a Democratic primary was 
called to meet at Forsyth, Taney County. Father Haden, Yancey 
and others attended to get instructions in favor of the former. 
The day's proceedings were a little refractory, but Haden 's 
friends were working up things late at night, and all of the dele- 
gates came out for him except one — Stallcup. L. Y. C. T. Hud- 
dlestone, a great friend of Haden 's and a member of his church, 
was talking it into Stallcup, what a good man Haden was ; he 
was the smartest man, the best and the damndest wire puller in 
the whole Democratic party. Father Haden stepped into the 
hotel about then, and Huddlestone appealed to him to know if 
what he had said about him was not the truth. Haden patron- 
izingly said, "Why yes, Brother Huddlestone, I am just like a 
jug handle." ''There!" says Huddlestone to Stallcup, "I told 
you so." Stallcup, in the language of Brother Huddlestone, 
"caved," and Southwest Missouri was solid with her seven dele- 
gates for Haden in a convention of 113, and it was never broken, 
either up or down. This was the first defeat the Democracy of 
Southwest Missouri ever received, although it was always on 
hand with a candidate for any office in the State. 

J. P. Campbell donated fifty acres to the county for its 
capital, and in the northeast corner made a reservation in which 
was an unsounded well of pure water. That well is now in the 
center of Water street. 

In 1840, General Nicholas R. Smith kept the Union Hotel, 
situated on the north side of the Public Square and east of Boon- 
ville street. No man ever kept a more popular inn than Smith. 
The reception room of the hotel was large and comfortable in 
winter, and the lawn and upper piazzas the retreat in summer 
for the whole town. Here the hunt was organized and the fishing 



32 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

parties made up, the newspapers read and politics exhaustingly 
discussed. 

Cyrus Stark, a lawyer, in 1838, established and edited the 
first newspaper in Springfield, the same being called "The Ozark 
Standard." It was sold to Mitchell and E. D. MeKinney, a law- 
yer and son-in-law of J. P. Campbell. It became involved finan- 
cially, and under a mortgage under control of Governor Phelps 
was sold and purchased by Phelps, and the "Springfield Adver- 
tiser" took the place of the "Standard and Eagle." In 1840 
Warren H. Graves, a brother-in-law of Governor John C. Ed- 
wards, and Livingston Edwards and Judge Patrick Edwards 
took charge of it and made it the most popular paper ever pub- 
lished in Southwest Missouri. 

Governor Phelps was elected to the Legislature in 1840, de- 
feating one Sharks. The Lancet, edited by Joshua Davis and 
John M. Richardson, was estabHshed, and afterwards the Spring- 
field Mirror, the first and only Whig paper ever published in the 
county. James W. Boren was its editor and publisher. So many 
newspapers in so sparsely settled country caused confusion, bolt- 
ing and independent thinkers, and parties lost to some extent 
control of their members; since then Springfield has been a 
nursery of politicians and could trot out one or a dozen athletic 
intellects any time to champion any question, home or foreign. 

Thomas H. Benton once said of Springfield that its inhabi- 
tants were more generally posted in the affairs of government 
than any other forty acres of land in the United States. Stark, 
Mitchell, MeKinney, Hubbard, Fisher, Graves, Davis, Boren, 
Richardson and Smith were our newspaper mxcn from 1838 to 
1860. They were assisted by Phelps, M. Boyd, Campbell, Bailey, 
Wilks, Haden, Cunningham, McBride, Judge Yancey, Bedford, 
Waddill, Price, McEJhany, Claude Jones, Sheppard, Owens and 
Hubble. 

In 1844 Governor Phelps was elected to Congress on the 
general ticket and for eighteen years served the district, state 
and county with distinguished ability and great honor and credit 
to himself. Among the many acts with which he was connected 
was the grant of land to build the 35th parallel railroad, and to 
him belongs the credit of running the overland mail from St. 
Louis to California. Phelps was out on the plains viewing the 



OF OLD SETTLERS 33 

country between this city and Albuquerque when the Postmaster 
General was about starting the mail. The Postmaster General 
was Aaron V, Brown of the State of Tennessee, and could estab- 
lish the points anywhere in the Mississippi Valley and on the 
coast of California as starting points. Senator Trusten Polk had 
been sent to Washington to urge St. Louis as the point for the 
valley. He signally failed and on Phelps' return from the plains 
he heard of what was going on. Without rest he went to Wash- 
ington City and after a long and angry discussion with President 
Buchanan, his cabinet, and the Postmaster General, succeeded in 
having the points made at St. Louis and Memphis, Tenn. — . 

Leonard H. Sims was also elected to Congress from Greene 
County in 1844. Phelps and Sims were elected on the general 
State ticket. At no other time in the history of the State was 
two Congressmen elected from one county at the same time. 

In 1846 the State was divided into five congressional dis- 
tricts, and each Congressman was elected from his own district. 

In 1848-9 the Jackson resolutions, so-called, were denounced 
by Senator Benton. He appealed to the people and a minority 
party known as the Benton or Softs, sprung up in the State, and 
in many counties the Whigs and Softs miscegenated and de- 
feated the "hordes" or the National Democratic party of the 
State. In 1858 the Bentons and Whigs united on Marcus Boyd 
and 0. B. Smith for the Legislature, and Frank T. Frazier for 
the Senate. That was the most bitter and unrelenting canvass 
ever made in Greene County. Smith was a young man just from 
the masterly hands of John A. Stephens, a gentleman of rare 
culture and finished education, who founded the Springfield 
Academy, and he had in five years developed Smith into a strong 
man intellectually and a dangerous foe in the hustings. The 
canvass of the county was thorough and complete and Smith was 
the classical "Eagle of Oratory" in that canvass. He was the 
first man in Southwest Missouri, who, with a manly voice, advo- 
cated the equality of all men before the laws of God and man. 

At an early date D. D. Berry, C. B. and J. L. Holland, James 
R. Danforth, Junius T. Campbell, Sheppard & Jaggard, Caleb 
Jones, W. B. Logan and D. Johnson & Co. occupied stores front- 
ing on the Square. There were no business houses on any of the 
streets until about 1845. One John DeBruin opened a very large 



34 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

assortment of goods on the Court House lot, College street and 
Public Square, and for years did more business than any of the 
other stores. The staples he would always sell at a sacrifice in 
order to sell his other goods at a fair profit, and his cheap store 
was by that means heralded throughout Southwest Missouri and 
Northern Arkansas. He held his customers for many years, left 
here, went to St. Louis, and died. 

Bentley Owens, Junius Rountree, Frank Bigbee, Dr. Cald- 
well, Col. Pony Boyd, Ab. McGinty and S. S. Vinton were clerks 
in the stores then. The Court House was in the middle of the 
Square — two stories and a pigeon garret in height. No man ever 
held an office so long as did Esquire Peter Apperson, except he 
was a king. Elected justice of the peace in 1837, he continually 
presided until 1861, and believing his duties or something else 
demanded his immediate presence at Rolla, on the morning of 
the 11th of August, 1861, it being a Sunday, he precipitated in 
the direction of Rolla and opened his office soon thereafter, and 
meted out justice to soldier and civilian with a ready and boun- 
tiful hand. He was a good collector of his fees, but on one 
occasion he could neither fall back on plaintiff, defendant, 
county or state, and that was a case no law had been provided 
for. One D. C. Smith and James Stalling had collided and each 
of them received severe knife wounds. Apperson had them ar- 
rested, they demanded a jury, and were two days in getting one 
unbiased. By this time Smith and Stalling had made friends 
and each of them pleaded guilty, but the jury returned a verdict 
of not guilty, and Esquire Apperson never did satisfy his mind 
about that case to the day of his death, which took place in 1864, 
leaving a pet dog and a gander, his only worldly possessions. 
There were worse men than Esquire Apperson. 

In the month of August, 1837, Judge Charles S. Yancy, 
whilst defending himself from a felonious assault made upon his 
person by one Roberts, shot and killed his assailant. Yancy 
surrendered himself to the authorities and was discharged be- 
cause the homicide was done in self-defense. In 1838 one Britt 
stabbed and killed one Reno, and in 1841 one Shanks shot and 
killed Davis. Shanks was arrested, but made his escape. These 
three deaths were on the Square. 



OF OLD SETTLERS 35 

General Nicholas R. Smith was receiver and General James 
H. McBride register in the general land office at Springfield. 
Lands were sold first by public outcry, and for six weeks a great 
crowd of people were in attendance as purchasers at the sale, 
and it was exceedingly tedious as every piece of money, big and 
little, had to be examined and counted by the receiver, and the 
money must be coin of the United States. One McQueen had set 
up a little kingdom on White river, and had supplied his neigh- 
bors with money from his mint, which was very similar to the 
United States coin, and passed about as current except at the 
land office. 

The county and town from 1840 to 1850 rapidly improved, 
the increase in population being from 5,000 to 12,785, and by 
that time nearly all the arable lands were entered up by actual 
settlers, and the county was spotted with comfortable farms and 
farm houses. A rich trade opened up with the Southern States 
on horses and mules, prices ranging from $150 to $200. Apper- 
son, Matlock, Campbell, Crenshaw, Haden, Fulbright, Weaver, 
Cannefax, Shackleford, Hancok, Lair, Corbin, Holland and 
others were drivers of horses and mules from this county. Mor- 
ton Haden, Thompson, Hubble, Jones, Massey, Langston and 
others drove cattle to Independence and Leavenworth City and 
sold them at fair profits. Hogs were driven to the St. Louis 
market, and furs, peltries, dried fruit, beeswax, etc., etc., were 
freighted to Boonville. 

Springfield in 1860 and 1861 was headquarters of the two 
antagonisms in Southwest Missouri. Douglass and Brecken- 
ridge, political parties, had perfect organizations, and were fierce 
and bitter, the one charging upon the other secession, and the 
other repelling the charge with vehemence and acrimony. Clai- 
born Fox Jackson was elected Governor over Sample Orr of our 
county, the Union candidate, so-called. The Legislature in the 
month of February, 1861, called a special election of delegates to 
a convention of the State. Littlebury Hendrick and Sample Orr 
were elected from this, and Robert Jemison from Webster county, 
as Union delegates. That short canvass caused each and every 
citizen to choose his flag — and from the 18th day of February, 
1861, business was suspended and secret organizations formed. 
In May following the two opposing parties met at Springfield. 



36 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

The Secession element of the people had a barbecue near the Ful- 
bright spring. Peter S. Wilkes, Representative Hancok, Frazier 
and W. C. Price, Colonels Campbell and Freeman were the 
leading spirits of the Southern cause. Colonel Phelps, Colonel 
Marcus Boyd, Sample Orr, General Holland, Colonel Sheppard 
and Thomas J. Bailey were the leaders on the Union side. Sev- 
eral thousand Union men met at Colonel Phelps' farm south of 
town, with every kind and species of destructive weapons, organ- 
ized a double regiment with Phelps as colonel, Marcus Boyd 
lieutenant-colonel and Sample Orr and Pony Boyd majors. 
Colonel Dick Campbell was sent with a flag of truce by the op- 
posing elements to confer with Colonel Phelps about raising a flag 
on the Court House. Colonel Phelps agreed that the ladies might 
raise the State flag and he would raise above it the Stars and 
Stripes. This compromise prevented a deadly conflict of the two 
forces on that day. It, however, was only for a time, as the 
future terribly revealed. On that memorable day, fathers were 
on one side and sons on the other; estrangements, even to bitter- 
ness of hate, severed the peace and happiness of many families in 
Greene County. Business partners, friends and neighbors be- 
came enemies. Sigel came and Lyon came, and for a few weeks 
gave confidence and hope to the Unionists. Wilson Creek battle, 
on the 10th of August, 1861, with the death of General Lyon, 
blasted all repose, and Sigel, with a crippled remnant of a beaten 
and discouraged army, retreated from Springfield the early 
morn of the 11th of August towards Rolla, Missouri. A wave of 
refugees, black and white, old and young, longer and wider, in a 
solid column, than the tail of a comet, and all were on double- 
quick time, army march — every man for himself, and no one to 
this day who was in that memorable exodus will admit that he 
was in the rear ; but each one will say that as he looked back he 
could see clouds of dust and moving, living panorama of human- 
ity *'on the git," with eyes opened and fixed on the east. One 
officer, high in authority and confidence of the Dutch commander, 
had no wagons or other accoutrements for his regiment. He 
pressed a wagon and a pair of mules and loaded it with seven 
barrels of whiskey and a half box of hard tack for his frag- 
mentary regiment of five hundred men on a retreat of one hun- 
dred and fifty miles. This officer, with great presence of mind 



OF OLD SETTLERS 37 

and forecast of the future in loading his single wagon for his 
men, fed them and twice as many refugees most sumptuously 
with the choice of all the commissaries of the command for seven 
days, and had two barrels of whiskey left, seventeen wagons and 
teams, loaded with hard tack, country cured hams, sugar, coffee 
and molasses. 

The year 1861 exceeded by far any year before or since in 
the products of the farms in Greene County. The inhabitants, 
Lyon and Sigel's army, Fremont and Hunter's army, McCullough 
and Price's army, were all wastefuUy supplied on its crops for 
two years, and much of it into the third year. Over $3,000,000 
of claims for quartermasters' stores and commissary supplies to 
the Army of the Union have been filed against the government 
by the people of the county for the crop of the year 1861, and 
no good reason to doubt the justness of any single claim, all of 
which will be liquidated by the government in time. 

In July, 1861, L. A. D. Crenshaw, Dr. E. T. Robberson and 
S. H. Boyd, ardent Unionists, conceived the idea that unless 
Southwest Missouri received immediate relief from the govern- 
ment the Union element would fall into the hands of Claib Jack- 
son's forces, and they determined on going to St. Louis and im- 
pressing upon the Union men of St. Louis the necessity of hold- 
ing Southwest Missouri secure ; and one evening on horseback 
the three started for Rolla. Dr. Robberson was acquainted with 
every path and road in the county and could travel them in the 
night as well as he could in the daytime. Each one was riding 
a gray horse, and after dark they were traveling in a narrow 
pathway through the woods east of Springfield, Dr. Robberson 
in the lead. They passed men — crowds of men, until after mid- 
night, horseback and on foot, and not a word was said, spoken 
or passed between them. The town of Rolla was filled up with 
excited men, and all rebels. No train had been to Rolla for three 
days. They got W. H. Graves of the firm of Graves & Faulkner 
to hire them a hack to get out of the town and to St. James. 
They had gone but four miles and discovered a large train of 
cars just moving up the Dillon grade of the road. It was Sigel 
and his regiment of Dutch on their way to Springfield. 

Very soon they met Sigel and he learned the situation at 
Rolla, and gave orders to surround the town; and with about 



38 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

one-half of liis regiment, newly uniformed, with bright, bristling 
muskets, moved through the woods onto the town. Some 300 or 
400 men had gathered in the town and many were boasting of 
how easy it would be for them to whip all the Dutch in St. Louis. 
Faulkner & Graves' large commission house was crowded with 
men, and one old fellow who was spokesman was hoping the 
Dutch Avould come so he could go for them. While he was thus 
talking some one come into the room and said, "By G — d, the 
Dutch are here now upon us!" The old man and all the others 
stepped out on the platform, and looking down the road sure 
enough saw through the opening woods about 400 yards distant 
the bristling soldiery moving down upon them. Not a word was 
spoken, not an order was given, but the sight was enough, and 
no fixed opinion of any 400 men was as quickly changed. The 
old man turned pale and with one bound cleared the railroad 
track and down the track he ran as never civilian ran before — 
all his courageous comrades following their gallant leader. After 
running about a mile they were pressing through a deep cut in 
the road about a quarter of a mile in length. As the old man 
and his men were about passing out the west end of the cut, 
thinking he was safe for a while, to his astonishment 100 or more 
of those same Dutch raised up out of the brush on the side of the 
road, and bringing down their bayonetted muskets on the old 
man and his company, said, "Halt, dare! Vot d — n velers is you 
anyhow?" It is needless to say the old man and his entire com- 
pany then and there surrendered, body and soul and all their 
possessions then present and in expectancy to the men who fight 
"mit Siegel." 

The extended and growing commerce with Greene County, 
through its chief city, Springfield, enjoys, is largely owing to its 
advantage of location and extent of arable land. The power be- 
hind the throne— the agricultural wealth of the county — encour- 
aged and sustained the city until it was enabled to lay aside its 
swaddling clothes and boldly take possession of the kej^ to the 
commerce of the great Southwest, which it holds today more con- 
fidently than ever before. 

At the breaking out of the Civil "War, our city contained 
about 2,000 inhabitants, and although not larger than many of 
the seats of surrounding counties, today, it was then as now, the 



OF OLD SETTLERS 39 

most prosperous and important town in a commercial point of 
view in Southwest Missouri. Tlie merchants and traders of those 
days were enterprising and their mantle has fallen upon their 
successors, and they have kept in the van, and by their shrewd 
and capable management of private and public affairs not only 
placed Springfield in the advance among the inland towns of 
Missouri, but constantly urged its growth and influence to the 
utmost limit. The war summarily checked this happy progress. 
Neighbors found themselves arrayed suddenly one against the 
other; the energy which had characterized our people was none 
the less apparent now that it had turned from the channels of 
industry into those of strife, and the great highways elading 
from our city to the north, south, east and west, which were wont 
to respond with the cheery greetings of the hundreds of wagon- 
ers, who were the patient and plodding means of social and 
business intercourse, were filled with the advancing or retreating 
forces of Federal or Confederate. Springfield was from a mili- 
tary, as it had been from a commercial view, a strategic point, 
and its possession throughout the war was bitterly contended 
for. During the entire struggle it was held as a base of supplies 
and operations by one or other of the contending armies, and not 
until peace had been fully declared and effectually accomplished 
was an attempt made towards repairing the enormous waste of 
property and vitality incident to that terrible five years' storm. 

But such was the spirit of our then stricken and shattered 
little city that no sooner did the sun of peace once more send 
forth its genial rays and assert the brotherhood of man, than she 
threw off the weeds of woe and at once set about to rebuild the 
waste places. Soldiers, whom the chances of war had assigned 
to this locality, returned to their homes with marvelous stories 
of its wondrous charms, and about the year 1866 a tide of immi- 
gration set in from the four points of the compass, which con- 
tinued uninterrupted until 1870. Every stage from the north 
and east was loaded to the guards with those who had left their 
homes with the intention of making an abode with us. As a con- 
sequence money was plentiful, business houses multiplied and 
property advanced to a fictitious valuation — all of which tended 
to a suicidal extravagance in the matter of building not war- 
ranted by the class of immigrants received. The town soon out- 



40 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

grew the country tributary to its local trade, and about the year 
1873, shortly after the completion of the St. Louis and San Fran- 
cisco railroad, a reaction occurred from which it took several 
years to recover. The mushroom population whose presence 
added to value only in numbers, disappeared as suddenly as it 
had come, and while in itself detracted nothing from our real 
status, it had a disheartening effect, which told unhappily for us 
upon values. 

But all this, like the loping off of superfluous limbs from a 
healthy tree, was, altogether, beneficial. While the city was at 
a standstill, the county as a whole was making rapid improve- 
ments. Enterprising, intelligent farmers filled the vacancy in our 
population caused by the fleeing idlers from town. Under their 
careful and experienced supervision the rich lands throughout 
the county which had hidden talents, were made to equalize the 
ruinous differences heretofore existing between town and 
country, and the result was soon visible in an improved condition 
of affairs. From that date our growth has been substantial, 
never wavering or at a standstill, until we have a population of 
40,000 in the city, and nearly as many more in the county. 

During all this time through seasons of business prosperity 
or depression, the energetic merchants of Springfield have con- 
stantly maintained and increased its commerce to meet the con- 
tinuous demands upon our enterprise, and to facilitate trade. 
The old landmarks in business portions of the city have one by 
one given way to stately and commodious structures. Capital 
has been freely invested in valuable public improvements until 
today, in point of commercial importance, solidity, attractiveness 
and population, Springfield ranks among the most ambitious 
cities of our State. What is known as the "Arkansas trade" has, 
and with proper attention, always will be, an item of importance 
to the wholesale merchants of Springfield. This territory em- 
braces the leading towns, and crossroads, places of business in 
Northern Arkansas, this side of the Boston Mountains. It now 
amounts to many millions per annum and is being yearly in- 
creased. 

The wholesale trade of Springfield is not, however, confined 
to adjacent counties in Missouri and the section of Arkansas just 
mentioned, but has lately been pushed into Kansas, Oklahoma 



OF OLD SETTLERS 41 

and Texas. Our ambitious merchants and dealers in their zeal, 
having the temerity to jostle the far-reaching business firms of 
Kansas City, St. Louis and Chicago that operate in this latter 
named trade territory. 

It will not be out of place to give in this connection a few 
facts relative to the wholesale business, that an adequate idea 
may be formed of its importance. Some of our mercantile firms 
last year sold from $500,000 to $1,000,000 each. Several others 
made sales reaching from $150,000 to $250,000. In addition to 
this there are several other houses jobbing in a smaller way in 
connection with their retail business. 

Our manufacturing establishments, although creditable in 
point of number and efiiciency, by no means occupy the field. 
The enormous extent of territory tributary, its advantages of lo- 
cation, and the ever increasing demand for the multiplicity of 
articles that at present are in many instances shipped hundreds 
of miles at great expense, and then re-shipped from this point, 
convinces one who gives the subject proper attention, that 
Springfield must become a manufacturing center of unusual im- 
portance. Those now in operation, although inaugurated at a 
time so unfavorable as to cause a struggle for existence, have 
outgrown their difficulties and prospered. 

Springfield's first bank was a branch of the Missouri State 
Bank, located here in 1846, where the National Exchange Bank 
is now located. D. D. Berry was its president and James E. Dan- 
forth its cashier. It was well conducted and very popular. 
Our banking facilities have grown rapidly during the last two 
decades; deposits have increased from $500,000 to more than 
$5,000,000. The fact that the money fright has passed by with- 
out leaving a scar, is sufficient evidence of their soundness and 
careful management. 

Last but not least, we want to thank New York and Boston 
capitalists for building us a railroad from St. Louis to Spring- 
field in 1870. Especially, Andrew Peirce, Jr., and Francis B. 
Hayes, who made it possible for a farmer to get the freight re- 
duced from $25.00 to $5.00 on reapers, and buy a barrel of salt 
for $1.50 that once cost $10.00, and everything else in proportion. 



42 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

Abuse them as we have ; curse them as we may. Southwest Mis- 
souri owes a debt of gratitude and thanks to those noble men, 
bigger than Ozarks. 



CAPT. MARTIN J. HUBBLE 

I had in mind to make for this occasion a list of ten men 
who had done most in the early days to make it possible for their 
successors to build our beautiful city. 

It can't be done with ten, so we will write of the deeds of 
our ancestors at our next dinner when we will have narrations of 
their upbuilding in the early days and personal reminiscences 
illustrating the forcefulness of the "Fathers in Israel." 

As all of my lists include Col. John P. Campbell, William 
Fulbright, Joseph Rountree and Rev. Joel H. Hayden, and from 
there on diverge, it is safe to say that those four must be in any 
list and I can talk about them. 

The best life and epitome of the things accomplished by John 
Polk Campbell that I have ever seen is on page 451 of "Doni- 
phan's Expedition and the Conquest of New Mexico and Cali- 
fornia," by William Elsey Connelley, written by Mrs. Rush 
Owen, the only surviving child of Col. John P. Campbell, and 
which is as follows: 

"My father, John Polk Campbell, was born in Meehlinburg 
County, North Carolina, in 1804. He was the third son of John 
Campbell, whose ancestors moved to North Carolina from the 
Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, and Matilda Golden Polk, 
daughter of Ezekiel Polk, that delightful old optimist, known as 
'Old Zeke Polk, the Tory,' who was brother to old Tam Polk, 
who declared independence long before anybody else did. 
Ezekiel Polk was a great-grandson of Robert Pollock (the original 
form of the name), who abandoned his estate in the barony of 
Roos, County Donegal, Ireland, and settled on the eastern shore 
in IMaryland and gave to America one of its most distinguished 
families. Ezekiel Polk was captured at the battle of Guilford 
Court House, and confined on board a prison ship in Charleston 
harbor. After many months, he, with many others, Avas given 
the choice of transportation or taking the oath of allegiance. He 



OF OLD SETTLERS 43 

took the oath and never violated it. He was the grandfather of 
James Knox Polk, eleventh President of the United States, whose 
administration made more history than that of any other Presi- 
dent except those of Washington, Lincoln and McKinley. 

"John Campbell, father of John Polk Campbell, was lost 
during the war of 1812, and his fate remains a mystery to his 
descendants. His wife was left with ten children, a farm on 
Carter's Creek, Maury County, Tennessee, several slaves and a 
debt of one hundred and seventy-six dollars. .She often described 
herself as wild with grief, but the duties of everyday life pressed 
too heavily upon her to allow inactivity. After long months of 
uncertainty she called the children together and said: 'This 
debt must be paid if we have to live on yellow cornmeal mush 
and buttermilk.' "Wages then were twenty-five cents a day, and 
usually paid in produce. In after years her children laughingly 
declared they did so live. It has encouraged many of her 
descendants in times of sadness and depression to renewed efforts 
and ultimate success. 

"In the autumn of 1828 John Polk Campbell and his elder 
brother, E. M. Campbell, visited their Grandfather Polk in the 
Western District of Tennessee, and their Uncle William Polk, 
of Walnut Bend, Arkansas, father of Olivia Polk, who was the 
wife of D. D. Berry, one of the first merchants of Springfield, 
Missouri. On this trip to the West they visited Van Buren, 
Arkansas, and Southwestern Missouri, camping on the fine 
prairie where John P. Campbell afterwards located the town of 
Springfield. Upon their return home they made immediate prep- 
aration to move to the Ozark country of Missouri. The first 
party consisted of John P. Campbell, his wife, baby daughter, 
and several slaves, and his friends, Joseph Rountree and Joseph 
Miller, with their families. They were followed by many fam- 
ilies, and John P. Campbell built and vacated successively 
thirteen log cabins in one year to accommodate his friends. He 
founded the city of Springfield, giving for a townsite fifty-three 
acres of land. He engaged in the trade with Northern Mexico 
and with Texas. He spent much of his time on the plains, which 
he crossed and recrossed many times. He was employed to lay 
out a road from the Texas settlements to Chihuahua, and was to 
receive a grant of land for this service, but it was never given 



44 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

him, although the road was completed. He aided Colonel Doni- 
phan and fought in the battle of Sacramento, He brought home 
with him several Mexican flags and two beautiful blankets; also 
a solid silver bell which was given him by a Mexican officer, who 
was seriously wounded and whom my father saved from being 
trampled to death on the field of Sacramento. Father reached 
the Texas frontier in a starving condition after leaving Colonel 
Doniphan, having been continually pursued and harassed by 
hostile Indians. He was finally rescued by a Kickapoo Indian, 
whom he had many years before saved from freezing to death, 
but who had killed a Delaware Indian and fled to the wild west- 
ern tribes. He recognized my father instantly, furnished him 
and his party with food, and guided them safely to the Texas 
frontier settlements. In the hardships of this trip he contracted 
scurvy, from which he never recovered, and from the effects of 
which he died May 28, 1851. 

"My father was a man of enterprise and great self-reliance. 
At the age of thirteen he walked from Maury County, Tennessee, 
to Mecklenburg, North Carolina, that he might attend school and 
get some education. He lived some years in the family of Gen- 
eral Nathaniel Greene, and attended school. He was a great 
admirer of General Greene, and caused Greene County, Missouri, 
to be named in his honor. He was a student as long as he lived. 
In Missouri in his day books were scarce and high-priced, but he 
gathered a quite large library, which was free to his neighbors 
and which gave many of the citizens of Springfield their first 
opportunity for general reading in their younger days. After 
the battle of Wilson Creek most of his books were scattered and 
lost. 

' ' My father was six feet two inches in height, fair, with light 
brown hair that curled, and eyes that were keen and piercing 
when he was aroused, but usually open and mirthful. He and 
his brother William were sweet singers, with that remarkable 
timbre heard rarely even in the Cumberland and Ozark mountains, 
but nowhere else on earth. To hear it once even is a joy forever. 
I have heard them sing — heard the music of their voices drifting 
over the moonlit prairies — have stood between them with my 
arms about each as they sang, breathless with ecstacy. My Uncle 



OF OLD SETTLERS 45 

William's favorite author was Thomas Moore, but my father 
preferred the writings of Robert Burns to all others. 

''John Polk Campbell was married August 28, 1827, near 
Spring Hill, Maury County, Tennessee, to Louisa Terrell Cheairs, 
the daughter of a French Huguenot. ' ' 

Joseph Rountree I knew well. A kindly, sturdy old man, 
whose sons and daughters were a credit to the country. He was 
Judge of our County Court and there was no talk of "graft or 
loot." 

I also knew Joel H. Hayden. He organized the Christian 
Church in the city, preached at first in the Court House in the 
center of the Public Square. Was over 6 feet high, portly, but 
not obese, and was one of the finest specimens of manhood I have 
ever seen. 

He was a candidate for Governor once, but was beaten by 
a "scratch." He was one of the officers of the land office, but 
never again offered for public office. He was a splendid 
"speaker" and a "born orator." 

The first child boril in Springfield was Mary Frances Camp- 
bell, January 29, 1831, daughter of Col. John Campbell, sister of 
Mrs. Rush Owen, and the first male child born in the present city 
was Harvey Fulbright, son of John Fulbright, and father of Dr. 
Fulbright, now living here. 

"Uncle Billy" Fulbright made the first crop in 1829 on his 
claim south of College and west of Market streets, and had the 
corn, oats and wheat to support the newcomers. My informant 
says he was "big bodied, big brained and big hearted," a tireless 
worker and ALL who stayed around had to work. He raised a 
big family of sons, eight, I think, all good citizens. 

The fight for the county seat was at first a three-cornered 
one between Col. Campbell, Maj. D, D. Berry and Finley Dan- 
forth, who wanted it at the Danforth Springs, six miles east ; 
Maj. Berry wanted it at the Gum Springs, two miles southeast, 
and Col. Campbell where it is. Maj. Berry feared that Danforth 
would win in a three-cornered fight so joined forces with Col. 
Campbell and Col. Campbell won. 



There was an Indian trader, named Wilson, who was here 
with the Delaware Indians when the whites came. He put up a 



46 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

tent on the south side of the Public Square, where the west room 
of the MeDaniel Bank now is. Everybody in the country was 
invited in to vote their choice of a name for the county seat. 

Wilson (after whom the present Wilson Creek is named) haa 
a jug of white whiskey, and as fast as the people came in he took 
them over to his tent and said: "I am going to live here and I 
was born and raised in a beautiful town in Massachusetts named 
Springfield, and it would gratify me very much if you would go 
over and vote to name this county seat after my native town." 
Then he produced the jug and told the voter to help himself, 
which he did, and of course went and voted to name the town 
Springfield. My informant, Capt. Lucius A. Rountree, told me 
this story many years ago, and three years ago he told it to me 
again, always closing by saying, "I was 17 years old and was 
'much of a man' ", and all of you know he was. There is no 
doubt that this story is true. 

Mr. Brown has given the population of the town in June, 
1853, as 316. In June, 1856, a census was taken for a private 
purpose and there were all told 723 people in the town. 

When the "Overland Mail" to California was known to be 
a certainty, a gentleman conceived the idea of a telegraph line 
to follow the route of the stage. When he came to Springfield, 
to get help to build it, he made the point that Springfield would 
be in the newspapers every day to record the passage, one way 
or the other, of the "Overland Stage." I saw the point and took 
one hundred dollars' worth of stock in the enterprise. We did 
get on the map, and few things were done to advertise the city 
more than it did. The line was practically destroyed at the be- 
ginning of the war, and a year or so after the war had been 
going on I met the man in St. Louis who had taken my subscrip- 
tion and money and he asked me if I still had my stock. I told 
him, "Yes." He asked if I wanted to sell it. I was amazed be- 
cause I had never expected to get anything for it, and now that 
the line was torn down, I concluded he was sarcastic and said, 
"Yes, of course, but the wire is all gone and many of the poles 
and 'want' is all I would get." 

He looked at me a little bit and said: "Hubble, you were 
the first subscriber I got in Springfield and I see I could buy that 
stock for a song, but remembering how good I felt when I got 



OF OLD SETTLERS 47 

your subscription, I am going to give you a 'pointer.' You can 

get $ for that stock, but I must not figure in the matter. 

Where are you stopping?" I told him and that night a stranger 
set up his name to my room at the hotel and I went down and 

he said he understood I had a share of the stock in the 

Telephone line (I forget its name). I told him I had and he went 
on to tell me how it was destroyed and the Government was going 
to build a line for its own use to Springfield, but that they were 
going to wind up the old company and that he understood that 
because I was the first in Springfield I was guaranteed against 
loss and he would give me my money back if I would transfer the 
stock to him, and he talked largely about the loss the war had 
caused the company. 

I litsened and when he stopped I told him it was not much 
and I would keep the stock to show my children that I had been 
a progressive citizen in Springfield. To cut the story short — he 
offered me and I accepted so much money for that stock that I 
don't care to tell the amount. What the new company that was 
formed wanted or done with my stock, I don't know. So I write 
this as a curious reminiscence of old days in our beloved city. 



TOLD AT THE DINNER OF 1908 

Among the prominent settlers of the early 30s, that we did 
not mention at our last dinner, none were more prominent than 
D. Bird Miller (after whom the Miller Spring, which is west of 
Grant street and south of Scott street, was named), who came 
here with Col. Campbell, and his brother, Joseph Miller, who was 
one of the kindliest old gentlemen and best raconteurs I have 
ever known, both Tennesseeans, big of bone, body and mind. 

William Anderson was one of the first settlers and was our 
first nurseryman. He had a large family of sons and daughters 
and, like him, they were the "salt of the earth." He lived south 
of the city five miles. 

Hon. Marcus Boyd, several times a representative in the 
Legislature, settled three miles east of town and raised a large 
family of children. He was Grand Master of Masons for the 
State and colonel of the Eighty-third Missouri regiment, and a 



48 PERSONAL REjMINISCENCES 

man of sterling character and a big brain. One of his sons, Col. 
S. H. Boyd, was colonel of the Twenty-fourth Missouri Volun- 
teers and member of Congress from this district and minister to 
Siam. Another was Secretary of State for many years and mem- 
ber of Congress from Alabama, and another, Dr. Erastus, I think, 
was the most eloquent orator I ever heard. His youngest 
daughter, Lula, married Col. Dan C. Kennedy, founder of the 
"Springfield Leader," and Robert Kennedy, one of the present 
editors, is son and grandson. 

Hon. William C. Price and John H, Price settled on James 
River, east of town, and William C. was Judge of our Circuit 
Court and Treasurer of the United States under Buchanan's ad- 
ministration. He lived to be an old man, dying in Chicago two 
years ago. John H. was a colonel in the Confederate service. 

Among the most active and forceful of our early settlers was 
Judge James H. Blakey, who settled what is now known as the 
McDaniel farm. He was from Kentucky and raised a large fam- 
ily of boys. 

Dr. Sanders settled at what is now known as the Berry 
Spring. I don't know where he went when he left here. Judge 
Henry Fulbright married his daughter. 

Solomon H. Owen settled four miles north of the city. He 
had a large family, one of whom intermarried with Capt. A. M. 
Julian, one of the kindest hearted old men I ever knew. 

Judge James Dollison came with ** Uncle" Neddy Thompson 
in 1831. They were brothers-in-law. He was County Judge for 
years and when I knew him lived four miles south of town on 
the old "wire road." He used to tell a story on a doctor who 
stood high and had a large practice, and was noted for his fond- 
ness for "roasting ears." The story was that the doctor rode 
up to the judge's house at noon and said: "Give my horse 
fifteen roasting ears and me sixteen." 

Benjamin and Chesley Cannefax were brothers and settled 
about four miles southwest of town. Chesley Cannefax was our 
first sheriff, a mighty good man. They were from Kentucky. 
Ralph Ott, the artist, is his grandson. 

Dr. Edwin T, Robberson was raised on the Robberson 
Prairie, ten miles north of town, where his father had settled in 
the early 30s. After graduating from a medical college, he began 



OF OLD SETTLERS 49 

practice in Springfield and was a determined and decided Union 
man at the outbreak of the Civil War, and was one of the three 
men who went to Rolla to urge the advance of the Union troops 
to Springfield from that place. He was assistant surgeon during 
the war. He was always active and his death was sincerely re- 
gretted by all the old settlers, among whom he had hosts of 
friends, because of his many actions of kindness. He left a large 
family which still stands high with all who know them. 

William Townsend settled about three miles southwest of 
town and raised a large family. He was the very best kind of a 
citizen and many of his descendants still live here and keep up 
the good name. 

Horace Snow settled about four miles northeast and was an 
enterprising citizen, raised a large family, and died regretted by 
all who knew him. 

Joseph and Resin P. Haden were early settlers. R. P. set- 
tled and entered the "Hooper" farm, two miles east of town, 
about which the courts are now "wrestling." 

Gen. Nicholas R. Smith, was an early settler, about three 
miles north of town. He entered land and made a home. After- 
ward he moved to town and kept a hotel at the northeast corner 
of Boonville street and the square. Board was $1.50 per week in 
1856. He raised a large family of sons and daughters. The most 
prominent and forceful of then was Hon. Oscar Benton Smith, 
who, with Col. Marcus Boyd, represented this county in the 
Lower House in 1859 and 1860, and was afterwards a soldier in 
the Confederate Army and Jydge of our County Court for many 
years. 

Anderson Hampton came in the early 30s and settled on 
Wilson Creek about six miles southwest. He was a good citizen 
and left many descendants, all good citizens. 

Maj. Joseph Weaver came to Greene County in the early 30s 
from North Carolina. He settled one and a half miles west of 
the city and sold to Mr. Shook and settled four miles northwest, 
where he died of the cholera. He was our first Senator. He left 
a large family of sons and daughters, only two of whom are now 
living, Mrs. J, L. Carson and Mrs. D. L. Fulbright of Double 
Springs, Arkansas. I never knew Maj. Weaver, but did know 
all of his children, and I will never forget what an old friend told 



50 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

me when he found out my brother was going to marry one of his 
granddaughters, "that the Weaver women made the best wives 
in the world. ' ' 

Judge Charles S. Yancey, who succeeded Foster P. Wright, 
who succeeded Charles H. Allen (Horse Allen) on our Circuit 
Bench, came in the early '30s. The family were of Virginia or- 
igin. He settled out in the country narth of town (near the cor- 
ner of Broad and Commercial streets) and died there, previous 
to 1860. He was tall and dark and a gentleman of the old school. 
There were few appeals from his decisions on the bench. 

One of the most forceful men I have ever known was Lewis 
Allen Dickon Crenshaw, who came in the late '30s, and settled 
on the Kickapoo Prairie, four miles south of town. He came 
from Nashville, Tennessee, but was of the old Virginia stock of 
Crenshaws and Dickons. He was "small and wiry," seemed to 
never tire if he could get to sleep from 2 till 8, but was fresh and 
good natured all the balance of the twenty-four hours, and was 
the best husband I have ever known. He was one of the three 
who started to St. Louis to get troops after the "Goose Pond 
Rally" and met Sigel and the Third Missouri and part of the 
Fifth at Rolla, coming out. Intensely loyal, although a large 
slaveholder, he never faltered while the Confederacy was in 
arms, but the day they laid down their arms he began to do just 
as earnestly his utmost to "heal the wounds" the awful strife 
had made. He was one of the three men I have known who did 
not understand personal fear, and yet he was gentle as a child to 
the injured and innocent. All of you knew him and I know you 
will join with me today in hoping and believing that our Heavenly 
Father, not forgetting the frailties of man, has taken him from 
the grave of transgression to the land of the just, made perfect 
to shine as the stars forever and ever. 

Capt. James Massey came to Greene County in the early 30s 
and settled four miles east of town. He was born in Ireland, 
landed in South Carolina, moved to Tennessee, where he served 
in the war of 1812, and from there to this county. He raised a 
large family of sons and daughters and died at the close of the 
war. He was intensely Union, although a slaveholder. So were 
all of his descendants except one, who lost a leg in the Confeder- 



OF OLD SETTLERS 51 

ate Army. His children and grandchildren all made good 
citizens. 

Gen. Joseph Powell was born in North Carolina, married 
Jane Massey in Tennessee and came to Missouri with Capt. Mas- 
sey. He died in 1846, leaving four children. He was in com- 
mand of the troops at the expected uprising of the Sac and Fox 
Indians. The first frame dwelling in Greene County was built 
for him by Garland Shackelford (who died one year ago at the 
age of 97), two and one-half miles east of the Public Square. The 
lumber was sawed by two negro men belonging to Capt. Massey 
with a whip saw. A part of the old house is still standing and 
one of the windows of 8x10 glass, 12 panes to each half, is still 
in the house. I suppose the oldest part of a house now identified, 
without doubt, in the country. 

Thomas and Boyd Edmonson came in the early 30s and set- 
tled five miles northeast of town. They were both good citizens 
and left families. 

Jonathan Carthel came to Greene County in 1833, I think. 
He was born in Alabama. His father was Josiah Carthel of Snow 
Hill, Maryland. He was of Scotch ancestry. His great-grand- 
mother was Keren Happuck Turner, the only woman of the 
Revolutionary War to whom a monument has been erected. It is 
at Guilford Court House, North Carolina, and in commemoration 
of her great services as a nurse after the battle of Guilford Court 
House. She had a son and grandson wounded in that battle, and 
rode horseback from Snow Hill, Maryland, to Guilford to nurse 
her sons, and while doing so nursed and directed others how to 
nurse the other wounded. In the National Cemetery at Guilford 
Court House the monument may be seen. Mr. Carthel was 6 feet 
6 inches high, a born orator and a minister of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian Church. He had several children, all of whom 
except Mrs. Sophronia Denton are now dead. He settled six 
miles southeast of the city. 

Bennett Robberson, Hosea Mullings and Joseph Evans set- 
tled in the Robberson Prairie, ten miles north of town. They 
were splendid citizens and each raised a large family. Many of 
their descendants are living in the county now and are first class 
citizens. Gen. Hosea G. Mullings, son of Hosea, Sr., has repre- 



52 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

sented this county in the Legislature several times and was the 
best parliamentarian I ever saw in a legislative body. 

Dr. Thomas J. Bailey came in the late 30s and opened a 
farm, the southeast corner of Center and Jefferson streets. He 
was a Kentuckian, a large slaveholder and a wealthy man. He 
was intensely Union at the breaking out of the late war and sub- 
scribed liberally to all funds for the Union side. The splendid 
monument to Lyon in the National Cemetery was erected by his 
administrator, Hon. J. W. D. L. F. Mack, under the terms of his 
will. He was witty and loved a good joke. Being my wife's 
guardian, I had to ask him for her, and he sighed, spit and looked 
so serious I tought he was going to refuse, and I like to had a fit, 
until he said "I could have her if I would make all the children 
vote the Whig ticket," and after the ceremony he wished us a 
long life and happiness and many children who would vote the 
Whig ticket. 

One of our earliest merchants was John D. DeBruin. His 
store was on the lot at the corner of College street and the 
square where the Court House now stands. He was a splendid 
business man and made a comfortable fortune for those days and 
moved to St. Louis. He lived in a log house, one and one-half 
stories high, on Walnut street just east of the seed store. 

Dr. William Shackelford was born in Kentucky and came in 
the 30s and lived at the corner of Campbell and Walnut streets. 
He was a fine gentleman and physician. He was father of Mrs. 
J. M. Wood, Mrs. Rountree and Mrs. Lack. 

Samuel S. Vinton was born in the city of Baltimore. He 
was a nephew of Maj. D. D. Berry and came here at an early 
date and was a clerk in the store of ]\Iaj. Berry and finally be- 
came a partner. He married a daughter of E. M. Campbell of 
Polk County and entered business for himself. He was a splendid 
business man and very energetic and left sons and daughters who 
are among the best citizens of our present day. His brother, 
Robert A. Vinton, came afterwards and lost his life on the plains 
some time in the latter 50s. 

John S. Waddill came here from Tennessee in 1836. He was 
born in 1805, and died in 1880, He married Sarah Kellogg, one 
of the best women that ever lived, who died in 1907. He settled 
the present home of the family just east of the Government 



OF OLD SETTLERS 53 

building. He was one of our most prominent lawyers for years, 
also Judge of the Circuit Court. He was one of the few who 
always wore a silk hat and walked with a gold-headed cane. The 
"Mary S. Boyd" School is named for his oldest daughter. The 
oldest son, John B., was a good soldier, and rose to the rank of 
major and adjutant general, young as he was. His second son, 
James R. Waddill, represented his district in Congress and is 
now practicing law in New Mexico. The youngest son is now in 
business on Boonville street. 

One of the most active and useful men who lived in the 
county was Charles Anthony Haden, son of Joel Haden, about 
whom we talked at our last dinner. He was born in Kentucky 
in 1812 and died in 1905. He came to Springfield in 1836, when 
the land office was opened, and was the first clerk. He married a 
daughter of Maj. Joseph Weaver, who bore him eight children. 
She died in 1859 and although Mr. Haden lived forty-six years 
he never thought of marrying again. He was a strong, vigorous 
man up to within three years of his death, riding horseback from 
the farm he settled on when he first married, six miles south of 
town. He was one of the firm of Haden, Hancock & Co. and 
Haden, Jones & Co., large stock dealers, also was one of the 
largest stockholders and organizers of the large tobacco factory 
operated here prior to 1860 under the name of Caynor, Henslee 
& Co. His oldest daughter married Judge John Yount Fulbright 
and they are today the oldest living couple who were born and 
married in Greene County and now living here. 

The man who did more than any other to give prominence 
was Hon. John Smith Phelps. He was born and raised in Con- 
necticut and I think came to Springfield in 1835. He was a law- 
yer, but settled south of town where he acquired by purchase and 
entry 1,100 acres of the beautiful Kickapoo Prairie. He repre- 
sented this county in the Legislature and Congress for twenty 
years and the last ten years he was as influential as any member 
of the body. To him we owe the "Overland Stage" and the 
Frisco railroad. He was colonel of a Missouri regiment of U. S. 
volunteers and was wounded at the battle of Pea Ridge, was ap- 
pointed Military Governor of Arkansas and afterwards was 
elected Governor of Missouri. He only lacked one vote of being 



54 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

nominated for Vice-President in 1864. He was over 6 feet high 
and straight as an arrow. He had a wonderful capacity for work 
and was a good lawyer. He is buried in Hazelwood Cemetery. 



WRITTEN BY MAJ. D. DORSEY BERRY, JR. 

My father, Maj. Daniel D. Berry, was born in Baltimore, 
Maryland, in July, 1805, and was brought up and educated there. 
When he was about 21 years old he, having the spirit of the 
pioneer in his make-up, "came west," and first stopped at Boli- 
var, West Tennessee, where he spent five or six years, and while 
there married my mother, who was ]Miss Olivia M. Polk. He then 
moved further west and came to Greene County and settled 
where the Country Club now is. This was in 1832. In 1836 a 
county seat was to be selected and three places were contesting 
for the site, each offering to donate land for the location. One 
was at the Danforth Spring, six miles east of here, on ground 
owned by Finley Danforth ; another two miles southeast and 
owned by Daniel D. Berry, and the other on the present site on 
ground owned by John P. Campbell. My father and J. P. Camp- 
bell, fearing a divided interest so near each other would result in 
the selection of the Danforth place, concluded to unite their 
forces and agreed on the present site, which was carried. My 
father then moved to the new county seat and went into mer- 
chandising where Holland's Bank is now. He afterwards formed 
a partnership with his nephew, Benjamin Snyder, and afterwards 
with a Mr. Sterling Allen, and then with S. S. Vinton, and after 
this with J. S. Moss, which continued up to the "war." 

My father was never a politician, but was in 1833, as shown 
by old records, a justice of the peace, and some years after this 
was county treasurer and was the first treasurer to make an 
itemized settlement with the County Court. It may seem that I 
am giving a biography of my father instead of writing a history 
of Greene Countj^ but the history of one is almost the history of 
the other, as he was so prominently connected with the early 
history that it would be difficult to disassociate them. He died in 
Memphis, Tennessee, in October, 1862, and is now buried in 
Hazelwood Cemetery. He was the father of twelve children, ten 
of whom arrived at maturity and survived him. 



OF OLD SETTLERS 55 

It was mainly through his efforts the branch of the State 
Bank was established here and he was its first president, and 
because it gave the settlers a chance to get the money to enter 
their land and energetic men to borrow money to trade, it was a 
great factor in putting Springfield to the front. 



WRITTEN BY HIS GRANDSON, CAPT. HARRY DURST 

Capt. Alfred H. Julian was born August 7, 1813, in Knox 
County, Tennessee, and was the son of John and Lucretia Julian, 
who were natives of North Carolina and England respectively. 
The Julian family is of French origin and settled in America 
during the seventeenth century in South Carolina. John Julian, 
father of the subject, was a representative man of his county in 
North Carolina, and took a prominent part in all matter of 
moment. The mother was of Scotch descent and her ancestors 
came to America at a date antedating the Revolutionary War and 
some of them took a prominent part in that struggle. The Julian 
family resided for many years in North Carolina and Virginia, 
but finally came to Tennessee, where the subject of this sketch 
was born, and where his parents passed the closing scenes of their 
lives. 

The early life of Capt. Julian was spent in Tennessee, the 
earlier part of which he spent in farming, after which he learned 
the trade of machinist when but. a boy. After following this till 
1836, he served for two years in the Florida-Seminole War in 
Company Thirteen as orderly sargeant, his captain being Jacob 
Peek. He was mustered out in 1838 at Fort Cass. He imme- 
diately started for Springfield, Missouri, and arrived here during 
that year. For a short time afterwards he engaged in a little 
wool carding business on Boonville street near the Jordan. He 
had a very limited education, but was a great reader and studied 
and procured every book of worth that he was able to, always 
thoroughly mastering one before beginning upon another. In 
this way he gave himself a general education, after which he 
studied law and was admitted to the Springfield bar in the very 
early days. He married Susan Owen, daughter of Solomon H. 
Owen, who was a very prominent citizen, living just north of 
Springfield. 



56 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

Capt. Julian, while not a member of any church, assisted 
with his money and influence in building every old church in the 
city of Springfield. His religion was honesty and charity. He 
was also commissioner captain in 1846 of the First Regiment 
Infantry, Missouri Volunteers, in the war with Mexico. While a 
very staunch Democrat, he was also a strong Union man, and 
during the Civil War was connected with the Union army, and 
being very familiar with this part of the country, he was of great 
value as a guide. Died July 26, 1899. 

There are many more that came in the early 30s about 
whom I don't know enough to write, except that they were good 
citizens, none bettter. Thomas McCoin, the Whitlocks, Dysarts, 
Cotners, Edmonson and many others. 

I have not mentioned any names that I think came here after 
1840. About that time the county ])egan to increase in popula- 
tion, much faster than it had. The "restless ones" went further 
west and the solid citizens had been here long enough to know 
the natural advantages of the county and they wrote back home 
to friends and "friends" began to move in and settle up the 
country wherever there was a spring. At our next meeting we 
will have personal anecdotes, reminiscences, etc., of the old times, 
so their successors may know something of the social life of their 
predecessors. 



TOLD AT THE DINNER OF 1909 

Gentlemen : I think that this is a good time to go back to 
"life's morning march," "when our bosoms were young," and 
pay a tribute to the men who made it possible for Springfield to 
be the beautiful and progressive city it is. 

All successful builders, whether of city, state or nation, must 
lay the foundation of their creation on solid as well as broad 
foundations. 

That the men who laid out and founded Springfield did this, 
time has proven. Therefore this day we render them our meed 
of praise. 

We have already recited at a former meeting who founded 
and named the city. Let us today put on record the man who 
built the first house within the present city limits, but which was 



OF OLD SETTLERS 57 

then outside of the limits prescribed by the deed of gift by CoL 
John P. Campbell. His name was William Fulbright. He built 
a log cabin at a spring, known as the "Fulbright Spring," a little 
way west of the present Gulf shops, or near where Fulbright 
street crosses the railroad tracks. This is absolutely correct. 
Mr. Fulbright moved here from Gasconade River, and had been 
told of the beautiful country by Col. John P. Campbell as he 
returned to Tennessee after having seen this country and he got 
here before Col. Campbell could go to Tennessee and return. 

John Lair, the "village blacksmith," who shod the mules 
and horses and made the plows and wagons used by our 
"fathers" was a kindly, far-sighted man. I have seen as many 
as six fires going at one time in his shop, northwest corner St. 
Louis and Jefferson streets. This is a good time to tell the story 
he told me, of how Jefferson street came to bend to the east south 
of Walnut street. He said the surveyor was at the corner of 
Walnut and Jefferson streets and the man with the flag went on 
out in the prairie on the high ground and yelled back to know 
where to stick his flag, and knowing he was outside of the land 
deeded to the city, the surveyor said: "Stick it down any- 
where. There will never be a street there anyhow." After the 
war Mr. Lair moved to Boone County, Arkansas. He was a first- 
class empire builder. 

They had able coadjutors in Gen. C. B. Holland, Col. Henry 
Sheppard, Dr. G. P. Shackelford, Maj. Joseph Weaver, Dr. T. J. 
Bailey, Gen. N. R. Smith, Judge John S. Waddell, Mr. DeBruin, 
Judge Charles H. Yancey, William Mc Adams, Maj. R. J. Mc- 
Elhaney, John S. Kimbrough, Wilson Hackney, W. B. Logan, 
Judge Littleberry Hendricks, Capt. John S, Bigbee, William C. 
Price (once treasurer of the United States), James R. Danforth, 
the brothers John and Henry Chenowith, Capt. A. M. Julian, 
Charles Carleton and others whose names do not occur to me as 
"I call the roll." 

These men all believed that in time we would have a large 
city here, and planned accordingly. Our Mr. Wilson told at a 
former meeting how we got the "Overland Mail." It was as big 
a thing for a thousand people as the "New Shops" and "Pythian 
Home" is today for forty thousand. To get it we had to bring 



58 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

a member of Congress from New Mexico and send him to Wash- 
ington, D. C, but we did it. 

"When a stranger came here, if he looked honest, he was wel- 
comed and everyone showed him every courtesy. 

It looked to me when I first came here that everybody in the 
county came to town on Saturday and the two and three-foot 
boards, shingles, siding, dimensions lumber, leather, beeswax and 
cedar posts that were "bartered" that day was to me as good 
as a circus. Everybody that wanted it got credit and all accounts 
were settled January 1st after purchase, and so far as I know 
only one man ran off without paying his debts prior to January, 
1860. What a record ! I bought the acre of ground on a part of 
which we sit for $125.00, but was not to have possession until the 
owner gathered his corn. There was no writing to bind either of 
us. I could not do that now, but David L. Fulbright is dead. If 
he were here I would do it again. 

We had some boisterous characters here, but they fought 
with their fists and the "best man" won. A story told me long 
ago always brings a smile when I think of it. I will not put the 
real names in print, but tell you if you don't know. A man we 
will call Jemima said publicly that no man could be sheriff of 
Greene County, Missouri, unless he was a "better man" than he 
(Jemima) was, so when he came to town one Friday for a two 
days' good time he was told that (we will call him colonel) was 
a candidate. Now the colonel was a quiet, orderly man, but 
mighty handy with his fists and everybody knew it, so the teasing 
Jemima got was rather annoying. But he got worked up by Sat- 
urday morning and started out to the colonel's home to lick him. 
He met the colonel on the way to town and told what he was 
going to do to him. The colonel tried to avoid a fight, but it was 
no use. Jemima grabbed his leg and was going to put him off of 
his horse, so the colonel told him to wait and he would get down. 
They hitched their horses, pulled off their coats and went at it, 
and the colonel gave Jemima an awful mauling before he would 
holler "'nuff." After the fight they walked to the branch, 
washed and put on their coats and came to town, the best of 
friends. Needless to say the colonel was elected as he was after- 
wards to the Legislature. Manly sports, such as three jumps, 



OF OLD SETTLERS 59 

jumping the pole and foot races occurred at almost all gather- 
ings of the people. 

Hon. and Capt. Lucius A. Rountree, familiarly known as 
"Old Red" (most all of the old settlers had nicknames), Judge 
Yancey was "Muck," Ben Cannefax "Old Dusty," Capt. Roun- 
tree "Old Red," etc., was mentioned at a former dinner, but I 
think this story of him will amuse you, especially after I have 
mentioned our sports. When the troops were assembled here 
under Gen. Joseph Powell for the Sac and Fox war, as it was 
known, the first day's march was to the "Little Sac," six miles 
north of town, where camp was made and athletics were in order. 
The Laclede County company challenged the Greene County com- 
pany for a wrestle, "side holt." It was accepted and "Old Red" 
was chosen as the Greene County champion. The ground was 
selected, judges chosen and after a tough bout "Old Red" threw 
his man. He at once jumped up, cracked his heels together 
three times and shouted: "There's the only man I ever threw 
down in my life." My, but the Laclede County men were angry. 

Thomas Jessup was of Scotch ancestry. He was born in 
Tennessee and came to Springfield in the early 30s. He died 
here about 1852 (not certain of the date). 

He started the first tanyard in the valley of the Jordan, west 
of the southwest corner of Boonville and Mill streets. He had 
one son and three daughters. 

His son Eli found the buffalo horn which is the centerpiece 
on today's table and which was kindly loaned for the occasion by 
Thomas Jessup, the grandson of Thomas the first, who is now a 
farmer south of the city and keeps up the good name of the 
family. 

You will see by the inscription that it was found in 1831 
somewhere near the city. There is a story connected with the 
horn which we will relate in next year's stories and anecdotes of 
the early settlers. 

Mr. Cason built the first mill. 

Capt. Julian the first carding machine. 

Thomas Jessup the first tanyard, 

Pressley Beal the first cabinet shop. 

Let their names be remembered because of their good deeds. 



60 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

TOLD AT THE DINNER OF 1910 

Mr. Hubble: I am moved to tell about what Maj. Hart told 
awhile ago of what took place when he came here. He brought 
out sixteen families — 

Maj, Hart: Twelve to sixteen. 

Mr. Hubble: Four of them stopped at Hartville, and the 
rest came on to town here and stopped at Dr. Shackelford's. 
The doctor was a Tennesseean and he undertook to show them 
the courtesies that men showed then. They went into Sheppard's 
store and did a little trading, then started out the "wire road" 
and went out to the Adams spring, six or seven miles southwest 
of here. They had a dog that kept camp for them, and the dog 
was missing, and the major came back to town after him and 
Mr. Sheppard told him the dog ran around all the time and they 
could not do anything with him, so finally the major left, but 
came back the next morning after "Bulger," the dog. It pretty 
nearly broke them up to lose that dog, but he could not find him. 
Some weeks later they got a letter from the old home that the 
dog had come back. He told his brother to get him and take care 
of him, but the dog would not stay and went back to the old 
home place and died there. He had to cross both the Mississippi 
and Ohio rivers to get there. 

Mr. Woods: That reminds me of a man my father used 
to tell about who asked if there was any way in the world to get 
to Missouri without crossing the Mississippi River. "Yes," my 
father says, "there is — by going far enough north; but it is a 
good ways around." 

Mr. Wilson: Talking about that dog going back reminds 
me of another that belonged to one of the early settlers here that 
was missing. After he had been gone two or three weeks they 
got a letter from the old home that the dog had gone back home, 
having crossed the Tennessee, Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. I 
cannot recall the old man's name who owned the dog, but he was 
a justice of the peace and kept a drug store there. 

Mr. Hubble: Oh, yes, a dog can swim the ]\Iississippi River, 
but of course he lands a long ways down river from where he 
starts in. 



OF OLD SETTLERS 61 

Mr. John Holland: If I had been in the dog's place I would 
not have crossed the river. I would have come back. 

Mr. John Y. Fulbright : At the request and solicitation of 
our friends, I desire to make a few remarks. As the children of 
the pioneers of this country, and as friends and companions of 
years, we have met under your hospitable roof from year to year 
to renew friendships and to recall and perpetuate while we still 
live the early history of our country. How well we may succeed, 
those who read after us must judge, yet we have the consolation 
of knowing that we have given a true and correct history as far 
as we were able and as far as we have gone. At this time, being 
the anniversary of the birth as a citizen of Springfield of our hon- 
ored friend and companion, and to mark one more epoch that 
will make our history a pleasure to review, and as an evidence 
of our appreciation for the many acts of kindness shown to those 
present and others, I now present you (addressing Mr. Hubble) 
with this cane. Although it may not be of great intrinsic value, 
yet it is rich in love and good wishes from those who give it ; and 
in the years that may follow we all wish you and your family 
health, happiness and prosperity ; and, knowing well that the 
physical man as he walks the hill downward toward the setting 
sun of this life must grow weaker, we all hope that this token of 
esteem will make the path easier, and will support and strengthen 
you to the end. (Presentation of cane.) I will read the inscrip- 
tion: "Presented to M. J. Hubble by his friends at dinner, March 
31, 1910." 

Mr. Hubble : I think everyone of you know how much I ap- 
preciate this. As a general thing, I can always say something; 
but now all I can say is that I never was any more surprised — I 
could not be — than I am at this gift; and that I hope everyone 
of you will be here next year, and for many years after, and if 
you do, you will find your gift at the head of the table. 

Mrs. Hubble (aside) : Well, I hope you will give up your 
old broomstick now. [Laughter.] 

Col. Murray : I was going to say to Mrs. Hubble that where 
there are a lot of good ladies around the house and not one word 
has been said in their favor, and a lot of men sitting around 
throwing taffy at one another, is fairly disgusting to me. 

Mr. Hubble: Well, you're a widower. 



62 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

Col. Murray: I learned to like the ladies, young and old, 
before I was graduated around here at the school house. I have 
carried that idea in my mind ever since that wherever I could 
pledge them, I would be glad to do so ; and I desire you to under- 
stand and know that, while I may have faded, so many years 
have passed behind me, my love and friendship for them are the 
same and not on the wane. On this particular occasion, I have in 
mind to present to Mrs. Hubble, the individual who has really 
had charge of this household for at least half a century, who has 
always been pleasant to her friends and associates, and, but for 
her, the house might not be what it is today. Few houses or few 
homes amount to much without a good woman. I desire, Mrs. 
Hubble, to present to you this umbrella, inscribed: "Mrs. M, J. 
Hubble, from the guests of March 31, 1910." 

Mrs. Hubble: It is no use to say I am surprised, for I did 
not feel that I was a representative at this dinner, except to wel- 
come all these dear friends, and I enjoy them very much indeed. 
I will always remember this day as a pleasant day, though I, like 
my husband, have not prepared a speech for the occasion; but 
you will always be welcome, one and all, as long as I am hostess 
at this home. [Applause.] 

Mr. Hubble : John Yount Fulbright has a good character in 
this county, and yet he is a deceiver. I don't know whether I 
ever Avill trust him again or not. I have been after him to talk 
here today. I want him to tell some stories of the old times. He 
said he would come to the office and see me, and he tramped all the 
way to the office and said he could not do it. I insisted that he 
should tell something, so he told me two or three stories up there 
and I tell him right now he has got to tell them. I let him off at 
first, he was so earnestly opposed, but he has to talk. He is an 
old fraud. He said : "I will talk a little after things have gone 
on a little while." I did not think the old boy was so deceptive. 

Mr. Fulbright : Well, he kind of forced it on to me. 

Mr. Hubble: Why did you not give me a hint they were 
going to give me that cane ? 

Mr. Fulbright: Well, give me a rap with it; give me a rap 
with it, if it will relieve you. 

Mr. Hubble : Now when he was up there the other day, he 
told two old incidents I think ought to be recorded; the one 



OF OLD SETTLERS 63 

about "Old Red," which was the nickname of Mr. Lucius Roun- 
tree, for all the boys wore nicknames then, the one about follow- 
ing the Indians to take them out of the country, and the other 
about Henry and "Old Red" following the elk. Now that is 
something the children do not know about. 

Mr. Fulbright : So far as the Indian story is concerned, the 
Governor. ordered Col. Yancy and others to go down on the North 
Fork and get the Indians out of the country. Now my grand- 
father was a very large man, and the Indians considered him a 
special friend. They would not do anything without him. So 
they went down and were camped on the river, the Indians on 
one side and the boys on the other, and they had a powwow, but 
the Indians would not go. So they made it up that at a certain 
time they would charge the Indians, not hurt them, of course; 
and they would have to charge across that river. Now the boys 
were not putting bullets in the guns, but were shooting to make a 
noise, but still the Indians would not come to time. So they made 
a charge, and Capt. Rountree said he never saw such a lot of 
water flying in the world as when those seventy-five men charged 
and struck the river. When the Indians saw that water splashing 
it brought them to time immediately, and that charge is what 
did it. 

The other story came about this way: There used to be a 
man down in this country, that I heard tell that when he came 
here there were a great many buffalo here. I know as far as 1 
knew the old settlers never saw any buffalo here, and we were 
talking about this. But there were a few elk, and on one occa- 
sion there were fifteen went through town and they followed 
them down into Arkansas, but never overtook them. They were 
seen, but the hunting party never overtook them. The elk were 
very poor and were probably the last elk in this country. I only 
got the elk story by asking these people about the buffalo and 
none of them, Rountree or my uncle, ever saw any buffalo in 
this county. They had been here, though, at an earlier time. 

Mr. Hubble : They were not here when the white people 
came here. 

Mr. "Woods : It was always said that all the depressions out 
by the cemetery were made by buffalo. 

Mr. Fulbright : Oh, they had been here. 



64 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

Mr. Hubble : As early as the 40s there were no buffalo east 
of the Missouri line. They had all been driven out. 

Mr. Woods: Bear were seen passing through the country 
after I came here. 

Mr. Fulbright: Yes, there were bears after the war. Bill 
Hickock was here at the time and I went along with him looking 
for the last bear I ever heard of. 

Mr, Wilson: In 1884 I saw a bear down near Cedar Gap 
where they were building the railroad. I was loading ties and 
the bear crossed the track right in front of me. If I had had a 
gun I could have shot it. 

Question: Was it a pet bear? 

Mr. Wilson : No, it was not a pet bear, I guess. 

Mrs. Hubble : I have seen wild deer between here and Paris 
Spring — wild ones. 

Mr. Shockley : A lady who lived out near and adjoining the 
old Frazier place was milking a cow and a bear came up and 
wanted the milk and liked to have scared her to death. It had a 
chain on its neck. She ran over to the nearest neighbor, the 
Boyd's, and they came with guns and a pack of dogs. The bear 
broke for the pond near and got in the water, and just knocked 
the dogs winding as they came, so finally my father he shined his 
eyes — it was a very dark night, just could see his eyes — and shot 
several shots, but never touched the bear until finally he got its 
eye and finished it and they brought it to the house and next 
morning found it was Maj. Berry's pet bear, so they sent word if 
he would come he could help them eat it and have bear meat. 

Mr. Hubble : Mr. Murray, could you not say a good word 
for the old settlers? 

Col. Murray : I have made my speech — all the one I in- 
tended to. 

Mr. Hubble : Well, that was a good speech, I am bound to 
say, wasn't it. Mammy? 

Mrs. Hubble : Yes, it was a good speech. 

Mr. Hubble: I don't believe any country on the face of the 
earth ever was settled up by a better class of people than the men 
who settled Springfield and its vicinity. Now I say that, after 
my experience all over the world with the people I have met. I 
have seen the educated people — I have seen all classes of people, 



OF OLD SETTLERS 65 

but I don't believe I ever saw any set of people actuated by what 
was just and fair to his neighbor more than were they. They 
meant to do that which was right and they did, and the other 
fellow expected them to do right and, just as Judge Fulbright 
said here a good while ago, if he did not do right he got a quiet 
little hint that the best thing to do was to move, and he moved, 
and it did not take more than a hint to move him because the 
right man gave the hint. And if a man abused his family he had 
to move, too. 

Col. Murray : It brings to mind one thought. I believe all 
you have said about these good men before us and that it comes 
on down to these men here. They are the salt of the earth, and 
have been for fifty years of this county ; and no better men, per- 
haps, ever lived in any community so far as their morals are con- 
cerned and their honesty and integrity and all that goes to build 
up a country strong and good — that element must be among them. 
But did you ever stop to think? Suppose every man in this 
town was like those men were you are talking about ; if the 
County of Greene, State of Missouri, if you like, was all composed 
of men like these, we, the people, what would we amount to in 
this day and time of rapid financing, railroad building, gas com- 
panies, insurance companies, everything grasping by the millions 
of dollars ? Do you know that Judge Page, of the Criminal Court 
down here, would have to close its doors tomorrow morning? No 
criminals would have to be tried ; there would be no crime. The 
other Judge Page, the police judge who fines men for a dram 
too much, about $6.50 fine, and then puts them in jail ; and $1 goes 
to the city and some $5.50 in the pockets of others, and Mr. Love- 
less and his police would disband tomorrow morning. There 
would be nobody to arrest; no one breaking criminal laws. The 
judges of all the courts, and the clerks and the $350,000 to $400,- 
000 Missouri pays annually for her criminal courts would all be 
banished, don't you see? Now I am not belittling our side of the 
question, you understand, but I am trying to show you how they 
run things nowadays ; that they are not looking for this kind of 
men to represent them in the council or the State. They are seek- 
ing men who are rapid runners and can transfer money from one 
account to another quickly. 

Mr. Hubble : That is right. 



66 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

Col. Murray: There would be no murders committed. But 
if it were so many people would say it was too slow. We must 
run over people with fast trains and tell the section men to pick 
up the fragments, but all means to get to the next town without 
stopping, and the faster the better; get out of the way. The 
question is: is this necessary now to make this a good country, 
better, stronger, more enterprising country? While we are not 
all teetotalers, yet one saloon an hour a day could sell all we 
would want. So that would all be done away with, and there 
would no longer be crime committed around dark alleys. To us 
trained along with this lot, we think our lines the best. But the 
other is the larger element now in the community, and we are the 
mere fragments of what the community once was when it all 
existed throughout the neighborhood composed of these men you 
talk about. They were in the large majority. You can tell by 
the stories that if one of the wrong sort hapened to get in, he was 
notified to move on. It was a glorious country. 

At the same time, as I said, with all this rapid transit busi- 
ness from congressman to constable, the moral side of the ques- 
tion has been dropped out of existence almost, don't you see? 
After awhile everybody, I mean this older class of people we were 
talking about, will have passed away, except for now and then a 
boy who follows in his father's steps, and then these rapid run- 
ners will have taken charge of everything. I don't know where 
they are going to run it to — the other place, or not. Sometimes I 
think they will run against a snag and burst the thing up, but I 
hope I am mistaken as to that idea. But there is one thing that 
may happen, that has already happened continuously from the 
foundation or settlement of the country until now, one thing for 
which we are glad — that their sentiments and their views have 
permeated the young people to an extent that will make good 
citizens out of them, even though they may not be as entirely 
free from crime in this generation as the older ones were — that 
they will have some manhood, some ambition to be somebody 
morally as well as financially. Nowadays, I am sorry to say that 
the standard of a man's power and influence in a community de- 
pends somewhat upon the amount of dollars he can stack up, and 
so long as that idea controls and outweighs the moral side of the 
question, then we are in danger of a landslide to the wrong side. 



OF OLD SETTLERS 67 

I did not mean to preach a sermon, because Father Lilly will do 
that when I get through. I beg your pardon. 

Father Lilly: I am very well pleased, indeed, to meet you 
all and be of your company. It has been a source of deep thought 
to me as to what I should say in regard to the subject we have 
before us. Many of you may think that language would be 
simple in regard to recording the early facts of pioneer life. Re- 
member that truth is simplicity itself, and the more simple the 
manner the better in which you state those facts and views of 
your youthful days, of the burdens, trials and troubles of that 
life, the defeats and the victories of other days and the growing 
up of the families, and the few laws of those days, when you come 
to think of it in the gathering of these facts of your county and 
city to be laid up and placed aside for the historian. When he 
comes to delve into the real truth of the matter he has it to hand 
and we fathers can say to ourselves: we had a good hand in 
giving what was proper and right to the history of the county. 
Your work and your labor on your land here and there, now what 
was that in reality? It was preparing for the future. Those 
who have come after you have divided and subdivided ; they have 
inherited the riches you have accumulated in a certain way. 
They are now the citizens of the land. So when you look back to 
those times, it is with gratitude, kindness and love. You remem- 
ber those gone before, the fair love of those around about you. 
Then your lifetime work is not yet over. You are now gathering 
together all these items, not for yourself but for the future 
generations that they may read and understand and then place 
your names all the higher and more noble in their own minds and 
say that as pioneers you did well your work and labor, bodily 
and mentally, to give them the real truths and facts of the early 
history of this county and of the city. I think, therefore, that as 
we have a member who is known so well as an insurance agent, 
that he can certainly insure the truth and the facts of these 
matters if he will go to work and gather them right in. As an 
insurance man, he ought to insure us each twelve months amply 
of all the facts gathered of this county and city and that, giving 
him this advantage, it will prompt him to be all the more ener- 
getic and all the more thorough in his work so that at each 
annual celebration he will bring in a large amount of the facts 



68 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

recalled of your early days. I thank you all very kindly for the 
privilege of being present among you. Not only do I feel highly 
honored by the invitation extended me, but, knowing that our 
days are few and our eternity before us, while in life, we should 
show that good will and friendship to one another so that, God 
speeding us homeward, we may be friends now and, I hope, 
friends in eternity. 

You insurance man, see that you do better next time. 

I arrived in Springfield on the last day of March, 1856. It 
was a beautiful day, and the town was full of people from the 
country, large numbers of which were preparing to go to Califor- 
nia, and each of them had on a red belt with a single-barrel pistol 
sticking into it, and a good many of them with knives in the belts. 
It was a nice warm day, and most of them having on woolen 
shirts had pulled off their coats, and I didn't understand what it 
meant. I got here from Columbia, Tennessee, where the men who 
carried pistols kept them hid, and I just supposed that there 
would be bloodshed here directly. 

The highest point around the Square was at the southeast 
corner of the Square and South street in front of Sheppard & 
Kimbrough's store, so I went there to see what was going to 
happen. There was a circus in town that day. I stood around 
for some time, and I saw nothing of a bellicose nature, and so I 
asked a gentleman why there were so many people in town 
armed, and he explained to me that they were getting ready to go 
to California, a trip across the plains, and that they always went 
armed to protect themselves against the Indians, so I hunted up 
my kinsman, and he told me that my uncle, Jonathan Carthell, 
had, on the request of my grandfather back in Tennesssee, se- 
cured me a position to clerk in the store of Sheppard & Kim- 
brough. I went to the circus that day as the guest of Dr. Shackel- 
ford, and went to Uncle Jonathan Carthell 's that afternoon, and 
came back to town Monday morning, and went into Sheppard & 
Kimbrough's store as a clerk. 

I can see the old Public Square exactly as it was the day I 
got here. The first house that I went in was at the corner of 
College street and the Public Square, in which was the drug store 
of Burden & Stephens, and also the postoffice. The next door to 
that south was the clothing store of John L. Holland ; next to that 



OF OLD SETTLERS 



69 



was McAdams' saddlery store; next was the store of Charles 
Sheppard and J. B. Kimbrough; then there was a little one-story 
house between that and the southwest corner of the Square, 
which set back a few feet from the Square; the next house was 
on the south side of the Square, and was ^he store of W^B 
Farmer; next to that on the corner of South street and the Public 
Sauare was a log house used as a saloon, and on the southeast 
corner of South street and the Public Square was the two-s ory 
store of Sheppard & Kimbrough, running back to Pickwick alley. 
The south part of the store, however, was only one story high; 
next east of that was a small house 16 by 20 used as a law ofdce ; 
next east of that was McElhany & Jaggard's store; next east ot 
that was C. B. Holland's store; next east of that on the corner 
was -Judge" Andrew's saloon, and fronting on the Square was 
a long one-story building occupied by W. H. and H. T. Hunt as a 
shoe shop; next to that north was Dr. Mitchell's drug store, and 
next north was a tailor shop occupied by a Frenchman by he 
name of Gounart; next on the corner of St. Louis street and the 
Square was the store of J. S. Moss & Co., the company being Mao^ 
D D Berry; across the street on the corner of the Square and 
St Louis street stood the Temperance Hall ; next to that was 
Jacob Painter's gun shop; next to that a livery stable. On the 
northeast corner of Boonville street and the Public Square was a 
hotel, fronting on the square. East was a small frame house un- 
occupied On the northwest corner of Boonville street and the 
Public Square was the State Bank; between that and the north- 
west corner of the Square there was a little frame house perhaps 
twenty feet square; next to the northwest corner of the Public 
Square and fronting on the Square was a two-story building 
owned by Allen Fielding; next to that on the corner where the 
Court House stands was a store occupied by McGmty & Co. 
These were all the buildings there were on the Public Square. 

The brick houses were as follows: First, the Court House m 
the center of the Square; second, the Bank building, northwest 
corner of Boonville street and the Square; "Temperance Hall 
on the northeast corner of St. Louis street and the Square; the 
school house in the grove near what is now Washington avenue 
and Water street; the residence of Gen. Holland on Jefferson 
street and one room on the Hayden place on Olive street, and 



70 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

that moves me to say right here that Olive street was named for 
Col. i\Iordica Oliver, who had been a member of Congress from 
North jMissouri, and bought a residence on that street. He was a 
fine lawyer and a great orator, and was Secretary of State by 
appointment of Governor Gamble after the Civil War had begun. 

I had come from a cit}^ of three thousand people with four 
large schools, one male and three female, situated in one of the 
richest counties on the face of the earth, and I had been a clerk 
in a store there, and I was utterly surprised at the amount of 
goods sold in this little town. Our trade came from one hundred 
miles all around, and the merchants bought v^ool, cotton, bacon, 
cedar posts, plank and shingles, two and three-foot boards, 
feathers, ginseng and many other things that I had never seen 
bought by merchants. I think that more than half of the people 
paid cash for everything they bought ; the other half settled up 
once a year, and what was more they paid. There were four of 
us in the Sheppard & Kimbrough store, and we were all active, 
and all good salesmen, and we would keep busy from ten to fifteen 
hours a day because we didn't try to keep the goods in ship- 
shape during business hours, but always had them fixed up before 
we went to bed. 

In 1867, I think, the United States bought from Russia the 
Territory of Alaska. Of course, everybody knows now that it 
was a splendid purchase so far as dollars and cents are concerned, 
but there were very few who knew why it was purchased, and 
all the balance of us "howled" about "Seward buying an ice- 
berg." I was in the office of Governor John S. Phelps shortly 
after people knew about it. He had been a member of Congress 
from this district for eighteen years, and he stood high with the 
big men who were governing the country, and I said something 
about how foolish it was in Mr. Seward to buy the iceberg, and 
he looked over his spectacles and said : "If you knew wdiy you 
Avould not say that. I will tell you why, but it must not be talked 
about now." So I never told the reason of the purchase until 
after I saw it published some two or three years ago, and one of 
these days it will become part of the history of the United States. 

It seems that Louis Napoleon and Earl Salsbury, backed by 
Mr. Gladstone, were determined to recognize the Southern Con- 
federacy as a belligerent nation. Their reason for it was that 



OF OLD SETTLERS 71 

that would be enabled to obtain cotton from the South, and their 
need of cotton had stopped the running of many mills in England, 
and created great hardship among the laboring people. Louis 
Napoleon's reason for it, as was afterwards asserted, was that he 
wanted to conquer Mexico. Charles Frances Adams was at that 
time our minister to England, and he warned Mr. Seward and 
Mr. Lincoln of the danger, and before England and France could 
act, the entire fleet of the Russian navy showed up in the harbor 
of New York one morning. It will be remembered that there was 
no cable then, and no wireless telegraph, and consequently news 
could go no faster than a ship took it, so the first news that 
England and France had of the concentration of the Russian fleet 
in the New York harbor was either just before it got there or 
when it did get there. The wise men understood that there must 
be some agreement between the United State and Russia, or else 
that fleet would not have been there, and the assembling of that 
fleet destroyed the last hope the Confederacy had of recognition 
by foreign nations. Of course, it cost a lot of money to take that 
fleet to New York and back, and neither nation could afford to 
have the Chancelries of Europe know that there was a secret 
agreement between the Government of the United States and 
Russia, so after the war was over in hunting for some way to pay 
Russia, somebody suggested that Russia sell the United States 
Alaska. Russia had no use for Alaska, neither did the United 
States, so the United States paid Rusia seven millions of dollars 
for Alaska, and that wiped out the expense of the fleet, although 
that was never mentioned in the transaction. 

One of the queerest criminal trials that I have ever known of 
occurred in this county. I tell the story as it was told to me by 
Judge Littleberry Hendricks, who was the greatest lawyer in 
Southwest Missouri up to the beginning of the war. 

A man living down on Sac River was shot while sitting on 
his porch by some man who stood behind a tree. His wife had 
gone to the spring for a bucket of water, and she was coming 
back when the shot was fired that killed her husband. She saw a 
bob-tailed brindle dog running away from the house. Now that 
dog was owned by an early settler who lived in the bottom of 
Sac just below where the man lived who was assassinated, and 
he was a true frontiersman, who had four or five acres, on which 



72 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

he raised corn, and lie spent the balance of his time hunting, 
trapping and fishing. He was a quiet, peaceable man without an 
enemy so far as anybody knew, but during the investigation of 
the killing the patching around the bullet that killed the victim 
was found, and when they went to the house of of this old trapper 
and hunter, and looked into his shot-pouch they found the piece 
of cloth out of which the patching had been cut ; it fitted the hole 
in the cloth, and was the same kind of material, and the brindle 
dog was known to belong to him. They went back to where the 
assassin had stood, and found the tracks of a man who wore 
moccasins, and they followed that track to the house. 

Upon this evidence he was suspicioned, and as he had been 
out fishing that day by himself it was impossible for him to prove 
an alibi, and the patching and the dog and the moccasin tracks 
(he being the only man in the neighborhood who wore moccasins) 
seemed to be conclusive proof that he was guilty of the crime. 
He was arrested, brought to town and put in jail ; was top poor to 
employ a lawyer, but Judge Hendricks' sympathy was aroused 
for the man, and he went to see him, and became his attorney. 
The man could not understand how the patching, the moccasin 
tracks or the dog came to be there. 

In due time the trial began, and the proof made by the State 
was as above stated, and Judge Hendricks had no evidence to 
offer in favor of his client except his previous good character, 
and the jury was out but a little while until it returned a verdict 
of guilty, fixing the penalty at hanging. 

The next morning the Clerk read the proceedings, and the 
Judge signed the record. Judge Hendricks had read the record 
before it was signed, and after it was signed he filed a motion to 
have his client discharged because the records did not show that 
the defendant was present at the trial, and of course, everyone 
knows that you cannot legally try a man for his life unless he is 
present; neither could he be put in jeopardy of his life the second 
time. 

Hendricks filed a motion for the Judge to dismiss his client, 
and let him "go hence Vv'ithout day." He quietly handed the 
motion to the presiding Judge, who read it with consternation, 
and asked the Clerk to show him the records, which he did. Of 
course, Hendricks was in the right, and a hasty consultation of 



OF OLD SETTLERS 73 

the lawyers and Judge was held. It was agreed that the motion 
should lay over and not be read, and that night the jailer would 
quietly turn the man loose, which was done, and Judge Hendricks 
never heard of him any more. 

His wife left the country shortly afterwards, and no one ever 
knew where they went. 

Now for the sequel. At that time when a man settled on a 
piece of land no one attempted to enter it. He might live on it 
four or five years because he was not able to enter it, but no one 
attempted to enter another man's claim. The fall after these 
proceedings a man thought to be one of the best citizens in the 
country took a drove of mules down to Louisiana. While there 
he took desperately sick, and sent for his brother, and he told 
him that he thought he was going to die, and that he wanted to 
clear the name of this man v/ho had been found guilty of the 
assassination, and that he had committed the crime himself be- 
cause this man had entered his claim, and that the way he did it 
was, he went to this oid trapper's house and found that he was 
gone; pulled off his shoes, and put on the trapper's moccasins, 
took his gun and shot pouch, and went there and got behind the 
tree and killed him, and that he didn't regret it; that the dog 
followed him because he had the gun and shot pouch; that he 
went back to the old trapper's house, pulled off his moccasins, put 
on his shoes, hung the gun on the rack, and the shot pouch on the 
luick horn, and went home. 

Since I heard that story it will be an awfully hard thing to 
have me convict a man for murder on circumstantial evidence. 

N. B. — The defendant had been tried at a former session of 
the court. Abraham Woody "hung the jury. " I asked him why, 
and he said the evidence was all circumstantial against the de- 
fendant and, judging from the habits of defendant, circumstances 
favored the theory that he did not commit the crime. 



TOLD AT THE DINNER OF MARCH 31, 1911 

I think it well at this meeting that we should talk some 
about the old timers that we knew who lived in the county in its 
bygone days. The very finest citizens that ever settled in any 
country in the world were these, and though they have all gone 



74 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

out of this life they left their impression on us and our compeers. 

John Woods, Avith his two sons, James and John, and his two 
daughters, Mrs. Williams and Miss Martha, came to this country 
in 1862 or 1853 from Lawrence County, Tennessee, and settled 
northwest of town about five miles. John Woods, Sr., was one 
of the finest mechanics that ever lived in this country. He had 
formerly owned a large cotton mill in his old home in Tennessee, 
and when he came here he bought a fine piece of land which made 
a fine farm. There were no better citizens than he and his sons 
and daughters. 

Allen Biggs lived in the same neighborhood, coming here 
from Tennessee, a quiet, industrious, good citizen. 

William Boxley was from Kentucky and lived in the same 
neighborhood. He was a jolly, good-natured old gentleman, kind 
hearted and generous, and one of the best of neighbors. 

Uncle Jaky Bodenhammer lived about six miles east of town, 
and he used to say that a chimney fell down on his children and 
killed them all but nineteen. He was of German descent and I 
think came here from North Carolina. He and his children were 
all fine citizens. 

I didn't know Mr. Kersehner, the father of Capt. AVilliam 
and Lieut. Thomas Kersehner, but I knew both of them, and I 
always heard that the senior Kersehner was one of our best citi- 
zens. They lived six miles southeast of town. 

Maj. Roswell K. Hart came here, I think, in 1852 ; was an 
enterprising, clear-headed business man; owned a fine farm, and 
was major in the Federal army during the Civil AVar, and under 
orders from Gen. Holland burned a good many houses in the 
south part of the city the 8th day of January, 1863, at the time 
Marmaduke attacked the city. 

William B. Farmer lived a little west and south of where 
the pencil factory now is. He was a merchant and a farmer and 
a fine business man, and although a slaveholder voted for Mr, 
Lincoln and was made Receiver of the Land Office. He was also 
Judge of the County Court for years, and made a splendid record. 

Dr. Gabriel P. Shackleford owned a farm, the west line of 
which is the Boulevard, and St. Louis treet runs now near his 
residence. He was a Kentuckian, kind hearted and generous, and 
a merchant as well as a farmer. 



OF OLD SETTLERS 75 

Uncle Presley Beal was our cabinet maker. He made our 
bureaus, chairs, tables and other household furniture. His shop 
was at the northwest corner of College street and Patton alley. 
He was a Tennesseean and one of the kindliest old gentlemen I 
ever knew. 

There were four Danforth brothers, who settled six miles 
east of town, at what is still known as the Danforth Spring. 
They were Finley James R., John W, and Erskine. Finley was 
the most enterprising and energetic of the family, and he gave 
Col. Campbell and Maj. Berry a "run for their money" in the 
location of Springfield. He wanted it at the Danforth Spring. 
He died before I came here, but I knew James R., who was for 
years cashier of the branch of the State Bank located at Spring- 
field, and a devoted member of the Methodist Church, a jolly^ 
fine looking old gentleman, whose kindly manner and open coun- 
tenance won the friendship of everybody at the first meeting. 
John W. Danforth, in early days, was considered the best dressed 
man in Greene County. When I knew him he had retired from 
business and owned a fine farm northeast of the city, and he rode 
into town in his broadcloth clothes and silver spurs and tall hat, 
clean shaven, and was elegance personified. He was in the whole- 
sale business at Forsyth during the days of the Ben Lee steam- 
boat, and made a handsome fortune there, upon which he retired. 
Erskine Danforth was a farmer; lived east of town, and I think 
one of the best men I ever knew ; quiet, kind hearted and loved by 
everyone who knew him. 

John Lair owned a farm, the northwest corner of which was 
the southeast corner of Jefferson and Walnut streets. I think the 
160 acres that he owned was entered by Judge James Dollison. 
Lair had a blacksmith shop at the northwest corner of Jefferson 
and Walnut streets, where he had, as I recollect it, six forges. 
He rigged up stocks and belts so that he could shoe the forefeet 
of 100 mules in one day. He was uneducated but not ignorant 
by a long shot, and a kind hearted, pushing, money-making man. 
There was never any enterprise for the benefit of Springfield that 
John Lair did not do his share. 

Littleberry Hendricks I have always regarded as the great- 
est lawyer I have known intimately, unless it was Willard P. 
Hall. He was a bricklayer and didn't study law until he was 



76 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

about forty years old. He had three sons, one of them a doctor 
and one was Judge of the Circuit Court of the Lawrence County 
district for many years. The other one never had good health. 
He told me that he had never been reversed by the Supreme 
Court in but on case. He was the foremost lawyer in this circuit, 
a quiet, kindly old man, with morals unassailable. He was Judge 
of our Circuit Court. 

William McAdams was an Irishman, born in Cork, but came 
to the United States when a child, and came here from Pitts- 
burgh, Pennsylvania, and opened a saddlery and harness shop. 
He was a fine business man, kind hearted and always ready to 
help the town. 

Bryant Nowlin lived southeast of town and was a fine citi- 
zen, and the first time I ever saw him he told me I could pinch 
him if I wanted to, and 1 didn't know at the time, but I learned 
afterwards that his flesh was so hard it could not be pinched, and 
as I was a stranger he thought he would have some fun out of me. 
He was a fine citizen and lived to a ripe old age. 

Capt. John S. Bigbee came here from Tennessee and settled 
two and a half miles northeast of town. He was a fine citizen; 
kept a hotel when I came here, and was our public auctioneer for 
many years. 

Gen. Colly B. Holland came here from Tennessee in 18-11; 
was always a prominent citizen, and always foremost in all things 
for the good of the town. He rose to the rank of brigadier gen- 
eral in the Federal army, and when Gen. Brown was wounded 
on the 8th day of January, 1863, when Marmaduke attacked 
Springfield, Gen. Holland took command and drove Marmaduke 
away. Capt. John L. Plolland, his brother, came here with him, 
and is now living at the age of ninety-two or three on Walnut 
street, and is the only one of the first generation of the men who 
made Springfield now living. 

Robert J. McElhany came here from Tennessee ; was success- 
ful as a merchant and banker, foremost in everything to build up 
the town, and had many friends and no enemies that I know of. 

Hon. John W. Hancock lived five miles east of town. He 
was prominent in politics; was a large farmer, and with his 
brother-in-law, J. T. Morton, came here in an early day from 



OF OLD SETTLERS ^^ 

Kentucky. I knew them both well and they were splendid citi- 



zens. 



James Ellison lived in the same neighborhood with Hancock 
and Morton, and was a good farmer and a good citizen. 

Heretofore we have spoken of Solomon H. Owen. Capt. 
Charles Baker Owen, one of his sons, lived on the James south- 
west of the city. He was a stalwart Democrat and was a captain 
in the Twenty-fourth Missouri Volunteers during the Civil War. 
He made many races for the Democratic party, and there was 
never any doubt about his Democracy seven days m the weer., 
and he thoroughly believed with Jackson that "to the victor be- 
longed the spoils." He left a large family and they are all doing 

^^ Col. Lane lived west of town, was an early settler, but died 
before I came here. 

The father of W. J. McDaniel lived south of town; was a 
good farmer, and the very best kind of a citizen. 

Thomas B. Neaves, once sheriff of this county and member of 
the Legislature, lived southeast of the city-and that makes me 
think of a good story of how Christian County was named, it 
was told me years ago by one who knew. If you will notice the 
map of Christian County you will observe it has a queer shape 
and its northern boundary is within six miles of Springfield, and 
its northeast township was absolutely necessary m order to get 
the territory to form the county. Mr. Neaves lived m that town- 
ship, and it was impossible to get the people of that township to 
agree to being cut off from Greene County without they could get 
the influence of Mr. Neaves. James Gideon, an uncle of Judge 
James Gideon of today, and a Dr. Davis were the men who were 
engineering the formation of the county, and finally m despera- 
tion they went to Mrs. Neaves, knowing that whatever Mrs 
Neaves wanted her husband to do he was pretty apt to do, and 
used every argument they could think of to get her to use her 
influence with Col. Neaves to get him to favor the formation of 
the new county, but she said she never interfered with the 
colonel's political affairs and she didn't want to do it. But they 
stuck to it and she finally said that there was but one thing that 
would induce her to speak to her husband about the matter, and 
that was if they would name the new county "Christian,' after 



78 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

the county that they were born, raised and married in in Ken- 
tucky, she might say something to him about it. They told her 
that they were just bound to call it Christian; that they were just 
"honing" to call it Christian, and that if Col. Neaves would 
agree to it and help them to get the necessary territory that they 
would call it Christian. Mrs. Neaves spoke to the colonel and he 
agreed to it and the county was formed and named Christian. I 
publish it so that the people in Christian County may know how 
their county got its name, for there is no doubt but this is the 
fact. 

Hon. William H. McFarland lived east of town on a farm ; 
was a very energetic man, and took a prominent part in politics. 
He represented this county in the Legislature and died regretted 
by all who knew him, 

Hon. Frank T. Frazier was Representative and Senator from 
this county and lived near Ash Grove. He was an energetic, busy 
citizen and loved to dabble in politics about as well as any man I 
ever knew; was a good neighbor, and there never was any back 
taxes against him. 

The youngest son of Daniel Boone, Nathan, once lived near 
Ash Grove, in this county. It is needless to speak of his char- 
acter. He had belonged to the regular army and left many 
descendants who are good citizens to this day. 

Dr. Monroe M. Parrish came here in an early day from Ken- 
tucky. He was one of the finest surveyors we ever had in this 
country, as well as a fine physician. His widow still lives in the 
city. 

David Ross lived near Ebenezer; came here at an early day; 
was a minister, and had a good farm. 

There were three of the Sims, all good citizens — Leonard H., 
Zachariah and Briggs. Leonard H. and John S. Phelps were 
both members of Congress at the same time from this county. I 
don't explain why we had two members from Greene County in 
order to make the curious hunt up the reason. 

We had two prominent citizens by the name of Hackney. 
One of them named Wilson Hackney lived at the northwest 
corner of Walnut and South streets. He was a Kentuckian and a 
hatter by trade, and when I came here more than half the people 
were wearing his hats. A few days after I got here I witnessed 



OF OLD SETTLERS 79 

a curious scene in Sheppard & Kimbrough's store. Old Uncle 
Billy Gray was a great big six-footer, living southwest of the city, 
and came into Sheppard & Kimbrough's store, took a seat and 
was talking to Mr. Sheppard when Mr. Hackney came in. Uncle 
Billy said to Mr. Hackney, "I want you to make me a new hat," 
and he took off the one he had on his head and says, "I am tired 
of this one." Mr. Hackney said, "Uncle Billy, I can't make you 
any better hat than that," and Uncle Billy replied, "I don't sup- 
pose you can, but I have had this hat twelve years and I am tired 
of it and I want a new one," and I have no doubt in the world 
but that it was true. Old Uncle Hugh Hackney lived out on the 
Sac and had a mill, and the meal and flour that came from Hack- 
ney's mill sold like dollars, for there wasn't any doubt about its 
purity. During the war he was accused of being a rebel, but he 
always declared stoutly that he was not, but there was a man by 
the name of Jim Ryan that always testified against him and he 
was disfranchised every election until, I think, in 1866. At that 
time Capt. Charles B. Owen and I were candidates on the Demo- 
cratic ticket and we went with the registering offtcers. In going 
from Cave Spring to Ebenezer we had to ride after night, and we 
got down on Sac and Capt. Owen told me to ride slowly and he 
would overtake me. When he came up he didn't volunteer to tell 
me why he had turned off the road and I didn't ask him, but Mr. 
Ryan never appeared against Mr. Hackney, and Uncle Hugh 
came and registered and was left on the roll as a voter, and I 
kept studying about it, and the first time I saw Ryan in town I 
asked him why he didn't appear against Uncle Hugh, and he 
said: ''Because Bake Owen came to my house the night before 
the registration and told me that if I appeared against Uncle 
Hugh at the registration that he would beat me until I would 
have to be hauled home in a wagon every time he found me in 
town, and don't you know he would a done it?" 

Joseph Evens lived north of town on the Boonville road, 
owned a fine farm and was one of the best citizens we ever had. 
He had three sons — John, Alexander and Mac. Alexander and 
Mac are living. Mrs. E. E. McDonald, the widow of W. J. Mc- 
Daniel, was one of his daughters, and Dr. Cox married one of 
his daughters. The McDaniels are grandsons of Uncle Evans. 



80 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

Capt. Thomas B. Reed lived near Ebenezer. He owned a fin 
farm and had a peculiarity I have never seen in anyone else 
"When excited perspiration would break out on one side of hi 
face and not on the other. He was a captain in the Twentj 
fourth Missouri Volunteers, Federal army, sheriff of the count; 
two terms, and the father of Judge Reed of the present Count; 
Court, and also of George Reed, one of our very best citizens o 
the present day. 

And now, in closing this series of talks by you gentlemer 
and my own reminiscences, I have tried to keep out of the limt 
light as much as it was possible and do the subject justice. I wi] 
close by telling how near Springfield came to having a candidat 
for Vice-President. The coming campaign makes it appropriat 
for me to tell the story. 

In 1864 the delegates from this Congressional district to th 
Chicago Democratic convention were Hon. John S. Phelps an^ 
Judge Sample Orr, and I one of the alternates. "When we arrive^ 
in Chicago we found the Southern States in that convention wer 
at loggerheads, and Missouri having a solid delegation, the mar 
agers of the convention called the Missouri delegation togethei 
and said as we had a harmonious delegation from Missouri, an 
as it was the custom of the Democratic party to take the candi 
date for President from the North and the candidate for Vict 
President from the South, or vice versa, that if we would agre 
upon a candidate for Vice-President that the convention wouL 
nominate him, as it was well known that Gen. McClellan wouL 
be the nominee for President. Governor Phelps came to me an 
told me he would be a candidate before the Missouri delegatio 
for Vice-President, and of course could not act as one of the dele 
gates, and for me as his alternate to take his place, which I did. 

After the delegation got together there were eulogist! 
speeches made in favor of Governor Phelps as the nominee, as h 
had been a member of Congress from Missouri for eighteen j'-earj 
and I took it for granted he would be nominated without ques 
tion, as no one said anything against his nomination. But to m; 
surprise when we voted there were only four votes for him wit' 
four against him, and Missouri then had only nine delegates i: 
the convention and Col. David H. Armstrong hadn't voted, so 
felt sure that Phelps would be nominated because he had mad 



OF OLD SETTLERS 81 

Armstrong postmaster in St. Louis, but to my utter surprise CoL 
Armstrong stuck his thumbs in the armhoies of his vest and 
swore that "no man who ever wore the shoulder straps of a 
Federal colonel should ever be nominated for Vice-President by 
his vote," and he voted for Pendleton and the delegation reported 
Pendleton as its choice, and he was accordingly nominated for 
Vice-President. 

Some of the offices that citizens of Springfield have held, not 
only in the State, but in the Nation, are : 

Greene County once had two members of Congress at the 
same time ; it furnished two Secretaries of State ; one Register of 
Land, and two men who have been Governors of the State and 
formerly lived in Springfield; also one minister to a foreign land. 

I want to return to you, gentleman, my sincere thanks for 
the pleasure your company has given me at our annual dinners, 
and the aid you have given me in writing this short history of 
our good old town. Some time or other it will be valuable to our 
descendants because they will turn to its pages and find that 
their ancestors "made good" in the building up of the city and 
county. 



THE RACE FOR GOVERNOR OF MISSOURI IN 1860 

Early in the year the Democratic party met and nominated 
as their candidate for Governor Claiborn F. Jackson, of Saline 
County. He had been prominent for years in Missouri politics, 
and while a member of the Legislature from Saline County had 
introduced and passed the famous Jackson resolution censuring 
Senator Thomas H. Benton for his political course in the United 
States Senate, from which the Senator took his famous appeal to 
the people. 

Jackson was a fine canvasser, and a character above re- 
proach, but all the people who were opposed to the idea of seces- 
sion recognized that it would be dangerous to elect him Governor 
of the State of Missouri, because they were certain that he would 
favor secession, and with his thorough knowledge of Missouri 
politics he would wield a great influence against the preservation 
of the Union. Those who were opposed to secession named Hon. 
Robert Wilson, who was a fine canvasser and a notable stump 



82 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

speaker. Jackson published his list of appointments for a State- 
wide canvass. Wilson, after a short period, withdrew from the 
canvass, deeming it utterly hopeless to try to defeat Jackson. 
Jackson pursued the even tenor of his way without an opponent 
until he got to Springfield. At that time I was a merchant, and 
Judge Sample Orr lived four miles west of the city. He was 
Judge of our Probate Court, and while he owned a good farm it 
was about all that he had. He was a customer of mine, and the 
morning of the day that Jackson was to speak in Springfield he 
came into the store and called me into the back room and told 
me that he was going to run for Governor. I don't think that I 
ever got a greater surprise in my life. For while we who lived 
in Southwest Missouri knew him as one of the most effective 
stump speakers in the world, we had no idea that he would think 
of running for Governor of the State. I was a young man, and 
did not feel competent to advise him how foolish it was for him 
to make the race for Governor. I knew that he had but little 
money, and I knew that his acquaintance throughout the State 
was very limited, so as soon as I got a chance I went out and 
hunted up some of the influential men of the county, including 
Col. Marcus Boyd, Joseph Moss, Kindred Rose, Dr. T. J. Bailey 
and L. A. D. Crenshaw. These men were undoubtedly Union 
men, although they were slaveholders, and I told them what Orr 
\ad told me, and that they had better come over to the store and 
talk to him and persuade him out of his quixotic purpose. They 
all went to the store and I went out and found Judge Orr, and 
told him that these gentlemen were in my back room and wanted 
to see him. When we were all in the room I told them what 
Judge Orr had said, and the gentlemen one after the other en- 
deavored to dissuade him because he would lose his time and his 
money and would be beaten very badly. He replied that the 
people of the State of Missouri were opposed to secession, and 
that that was the question uppermost in the minds of all; that 
everybody was trying to smother it, but that everybody knew 
that that was the question now before the people, and, therefore, 
if the people of the State of Missouri knew they had a chance to 
vote for a man who would oppose secession in any form, and 
under all circumstances they would elect him, and that he had 
no more doubt of his election as Governor of Missouri than he 



OF OLD SETTLERS 83 

had of his present existence. That was the point of the speech 
that he made to that audience. I can't remember all that he said, 
but I do remember at the close of his speech that I felt that he 
would be elected Governor. 

Col. Boyd had been a member of the Legislature with Clai- 
born F. Jackson and knew him well, and Judge Orr asked him to 
introduce him to Jackson so that he might ask for a division of 
time, and Col. Boyd and he started to the hotel at the corner of 
Boonville street and the Square, leaving the audience in my 
counting room. It was some time before anything was said. Mr. 
Crenshaw said: "Have you seen Jackson?" Nobody in the 
audience had seen him that morning. Mr. Crenshaw said: 
"Well, he is dressed elegantly, and he has a fine equipment for 
traveling, and I cannot stand it for Springfield to send out a 
candidate less equally equipped, so I propose to furnish him the 
finest span of mules in this country, and my double-seated buggy 
and Tom (who was a negro man that he owned) to drive it, and 
it shall not cost him a cent." Dr. Bailey then spoke up and said 
he has got to have some money and some clothes, and I said, "I 
will furnish the clothes," and Dr. Bailey, Uncle Joe Moss, Uncle 
Kin Rose, Elijah Gray and the others chipped in $300.00, and I 
was to give him the clothes and the money when he came back 
from his introduction to Governor Jackson. 

By and by Judge Orr came back, and I laid out a good suit 
of clothes for him and handed him the money, and told him Mr. 
Crenshaw had sent for his mules and buggy, and that we didn't 
want him to travel in less style than Governor Jackson; that he 
must remember that he represented the great County of Greene 
and the city of Springfield. He stood there with the money in 
his hands for a little bit, and he handed it back, and threw the 
clothes that I had laid out for him on another table, and he said: 
"The people will elect me. You give this money back to the men 
who gave it to you, and you keep your clothes. I have a good 
horse, and I am going to ride him during this canvass, and I will 
be elected Governor of the State of Missouri when I get back." 
Orr was about five feet nine inches high, sandy complexion, red 
hair that stood straight up. In fact he looked like a smaller 
production of Andrew Jackson. 



84 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

Col. Boyd was one of the greatest practical jokers in the 
world, and of this fact Jackson was well aware. Boyd said that 
when he introduced Orr to Jackson, and told him that he was 
going to run for Governor, and wanted fifteen minutes of time 
to announce himself at the speaking that day that Jackson 
treated him very courteously, but after Orr went out he said to 
Boyd, "Boyd, will you never get done with your practical jokes?" 
never dreaming that Orr was to be a candidate. Boyd said he 
told him that before the canvass was over Orr would drive him 
off of the stump, and he said, "Claib, you will think this is the 
greatest practical joke that I ever played." 

Orr had on a 25-cent straw hat, a blue and white marseilles 
coat and vest, tow linen trousers, woolen socks and a pair of 
heavy shoes. He had extra clothing in his saddle bags. I didn't 
see them, but suppose they were the same kind, just enough for 
a change. 

When the speaking occurred Jackson stated that Judge Orr, 
a citizen of Springfield, was going to become a candidate, and 
had asked permission to announce himself, and that he, there- 
fore, gave him fifteen minutes of his time. Orr did not take up 
the full fifteen minutes, just simply made his announcement. 
One of the best citizens of the county was sitting on a log not 
very far away, and he could not keep from expressing his disgust 
that Orr should be a candidate for Governor, and he did it so 
loud that everybody heard it. Quick as a flash Orr said, "Uncle 
E , the next day after the election if I am not elected Gov- 
ernor of the State of Missouri you will think I am," and I don't 
know what there was in it except the way he said it, but it set 
the crowd wild, and they cheered him "for keeps." 

Orr left here that afternoon for Buffalo, where they were to 
speak the next day, and Jackson divided time with him until 
they got to Saline County, Jackson's home, when Jackson de- 
clined to canvass any further. 

In the meantime the St. Louis Republican had sent a man, I 
can't think of his name, but we called him "The Wandering Jew," 
as a correspondent to report the debates between Orr and Jack- 
son, and while the Republican was for Jackson outwardly at the 
bottom of its heart I thought it was for Orr, because it was sure 
that Orr was for the Union, and the Republican was, but Jackson 



OF OLD SETTLERS 85 

being the regular nominee of the Democratic party, and the Re- 
publican being the greatest Democratic paper in the State, of 
course kept Jackson's name at the head of the paper, but the 
reports of the "Wandering Jew" set the Union men in the State 
wild over Orr's speeches and stories. 

After Jackson decided not to pursue the canvass any further 
a caucus of the Democrats was held that night, and it was de- 
termined that the candidate for Lieutenant Governor, who was 
a polished gentleman and a fine speaker, should answer Orr 
the next day at Boonville, and he would tell all the stories 
that Orr had told on his canvass, and thereby break the effect of 
his speech. This he did, and he said when he got through, "Now, 
fellow-citizens, you will find that will be the speech of the gen- 
tleman who is candidate for Governor of the State," but, of 
course, coming from the lips of the candidate for Lieutenant 
Governor who wanted to belittle the stories it would not sound 
like much of a speech, and the Democrats were in high glee over 
the destruction of the effect of Orr's speech on the crowd. When 
Orr got up he made an entirely different kind of a speech from 
the one recited by his predecessor on the stand, and told a new 
set of stories, and he went home and left the field clear to Orr. 

The letters of "The Wandering Jew" to the Republican had 
excited the people all over the State, and Frank Blair, John 
Howe and other Union men in St. Louis wanted him to come to 
St. Louis to speak, so they found him in Osage County, I think, 
and invited him down to St. Louis on a certain date when they 
would have a big rally. As to the rally, Judge Urial Wright 
told Judge Dade and Col. Marcus Boyd and I this story in Judge 
Dade's yard, when he came here to speak after the gubernatorial 
and before the presidential election of that year. He said that 
he and Col. Blair, Mr. Barnum and John Howe were appointed 
a committee to go to the train and meet Judge Orr and take him 
to Barnum 's Hotel, where he was to be their guest. They met 
the Missouri Pacific train, but there was no Judge Orr. None 
of them knew the Judge personally, but the description of his 
person had been so often given that they had no doubt but that 
they would know him when they saw him. They waited patiently 
until all the passengers were out of the train, and there was no 
Judge Orr, so they went back to the hotel, and there was no 



86 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

Judge Orr. They hunted all through the city and could not find 
him, and were very much excited, and along about two o'clock 
went back to Barnum's Hotel and asked the clerk if he had seen 
or heard anything of Judge Orr. Orr had a very queer signature, 
and the clerk just pointed to a signature on the book, and there 
it was, "S. Orr, Springfield, Missouri," and said, "Is that your 
man?" and Frank Blair looked at the signature and said that Is 
right, and he said, "Where is he?" and the clerk said, "In the 
dining room." Blair, Howe and Wright went in, and he says 
that Orr was shoveling vegetables into his mouth with his knife, 
and he had on the commonest clothes he pretty nearly ever saw, 
but when he looked up at him he saw Andrew Jackson (Blair had 
in his youth known Jackson well). Blair said to Orr, "Is this 
Judge Orr of Springfield?" Orr looked up and said it was, and 
Blair said, "Well, Judge, I am Frank Blair." Orr jumped up 
and reached his hand across the table, and said, "How are you, 
Frank. I have hearn of you often, and I am glad to meet you," 
and Blair explained to him that they had been hunting for him 
all the morning, and asked him how he got there, and he said 
that he had come on a freight train with his horse; that he had 
to make a canvass in Southeast Missouri, and that he was going 
to stay with that horse. They had a conference lasting all the 
afternoon. Maj. Rollins, Bob Wilson and other noted men of 
the State were there, all brought there by the letters of the 
"Wandering Jew" in the Republican about what wonderful 
speeches Orr had made, and how he had enthused the masses. They 
talked to him that afternoon, and they were certain that the 
"Wandering Jew" had written those letters for the purpose of 
deceiving the people as to Orr's ability as a canvasser and a 
public speaker. Wright said he had no idea he could speak a 
hundred words without stopping, and as for his swaying his 
crowd he knew he could not do that, so they went into a con- 
ference that afternoon as to what to do, and they decided that 
Judge Uriel Wright should make one of his best speeches, fol- 
lowed by Bob Wilson, and he by Maj. Rollins, and they would 
let Orr speak fifteen minutes, and Frank Blair to cover the fiasco 
of Orr's speech; also to make a whooping-up speech, and get the 
crowd in a good humor. So the program was carried out, and 
Wright said he thought that AVilson and Rollins made the best 



OF OLD SETTLERS 87 

speeches they ever made in their lives. I forgot to say that they 
told Judge Orr that knowing he was pretty well worked out that 
they would not want him to speak but fifteen minutes, the real 
reason being that they did not want destroyed their chances of 
carrying the city of St. Louis. So after all three speeches had 
been made Frank Blair introduced Orr as the next Governor of 
the State of Missouri, and Orr pulled out an old silver watch and 
laid it down before him, and in less than ten minutes he had the 
crowd wild and cheering to beat the band. At the end of fifteen 
minutes he was going to close, and the crowd yelled to "Go on!" 
"Go on!" "Go on!" and he turned around to Frank Blair and 
said, "Shall I go on?" and he said, "Yes," and Orr said, "How 
long?" and he said, "Another fifteen minutes," and Orr went at 
it again, and it was no trouble for him to keep them yelling and 
hollowing all the time at his stories and apt illustrations, and at 
the end of fifteen minutes he was going to close again, and the 
audience yelled, "Go on!" and he turned around to Blair and 
said, "Well, what shall I do?" and Blair said, "Go on! Go on!" 
and Orr says, "How long shall I go on?" and Blair says, "Just 
as long as you can keep them hollowing in that way," and Orr 
says, "I can keep them hollowing that way all night," and 
"Wright says, "Gentlemen, right then I believed he could do it." 

He made his canvass, and spoke at Lebanon the day of the 
election, and rode part of the way to Springfield that afternoon, 
and got into Springfield the next afternoon, and about three hun- 
dred of us went out on horseback to meet him and escort him in, 
and he went up on the porch of the hotel at the corner of Boon- 
ville street and the Public Square and spoke to us, and it so hap- 
pened that the old gentleman who had made the sneering remark 
when he announced himself as candidate was sitting on the fence 
that was around the old public well, and Judge Orr saw him, and 

the first thing he said was, "Uncle E , when I announced 

myself for Governor you sneered at me, and I told you then that 
if I wasn't elected Governor of the State of Missouri you would 
think I was the day after the election. Don't you?" Uncle 
E says, "Yes, Sample, I am sorry to say that I do." 

Three different amended returns were made in that election, 
and according to amended returns Orr was defeated. If he had 



88 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

been elected the war on the west side of the Mississippi would 
have been south of the Arkansas River in place of the Missouri. 



CHAMP CLARK 

My first acquaintance with Hon. Champ Clark came about 
in this way: At Luray there had been a mob. When Governor 
Phelps was inaugurated he determined to punish the men con- 
cerned in it. Hon. John M. Wood was then a young man, and 
only those well acquainted with him knew how big he was. Gov- 
ernor Phelps intended to send Gen. E. Y. Mitchell, who was then 
Adjutant General, and who was a fine criminal lawyer, to aid in 
the prosecution of those indicted but as Gen. Mitchel was to be 
the assistant. Governor Phelps wanted to know for certain that 
the legal Prosecuting Attorney had the "sand in his craw" and 
"backbone" to stand up for the enforcement of law and order 
while bearded by the leaders of the mob and those who par- 
ticipated with them. So he asked me to see, and become well sat- 
isfied myself, whether Mr. Wood would prosecute in the face 
of all difficulties. He did not care so much about his legal abil- 
ities, as General Mitchell would furnish them, but he did want 
to know that he would favor vigorous prosecution of those en- 
gaged in the mob; and if I didn't think that he was the man he 
wanted, he asked me to see Champ Clark, and size him up. It 
so happened that it was convenient to interview Clark first. Of 
course, he did not know or even suspect that I had inveigled him 
into the interview on the porch of the "Old Hotel." But I spent 
a very happy two hours with him in chatting on that old porch 
discussing law, politics and religion. "I found he was a decided 
believer" in the Scriptures as interpreted by Alexander Camp- 
bell ; for his copious quotations from the New Testament and great 
writers showed me that he knew on what he based his faith. It 
did not take me long to find out that he was not a Seventh Day 
Democrat, but was a Democrat seven days in the week, and that 
he knew of no reason why the lenient laws of State of Missouri 
should not be enforced, but that he did know of many reasons 
why they should be. And the reasons that he gave me were 
so entirely satisfactory, and his illustrations so ample and so 



OF OLD SETTLERS 89 

appropriate, that I felt certain that if Hon. J. M. Wood did not 
come to the "scratch" in first-class manner that Champ Clark 
would. Some days afterwards I met the Hon. J. M. "Wood, and 
without his "knowledge and consent" I put him through the same 
"course of sprouts." The interview proved entirely satisfactory, 
and I so reported to Governor Phelps. It is a matter of history 
that Mr. Wood and General Mitchell defeated the leaders of the 
mob at the next trial. This will be news to Judge Wood, as it was 
to Champ Clark. When I wrote him about it, some six months 
ago, I got a characteristic letter from Clark in answer to mine, 
informing him why 1 interviewed him on the porch of the "Old 
Hotel." He said substantially: "What little things change the 
course of human life. If I had prosecuted those men, I would 
probably be practicing law in Missouri, but as I failed to get the 
chance I am what I am." 

I see that the farmers of Greene County are organizing in 
order to take better care of their farms, raise bigger and finer 
stock and greater cereal crops of all kinds than they have done 
in the last few years. To encourage them, I want to write that 
prior to the war we had what was called the Southwest Missouri 
District Fair. In 1860 the fair association offered a prize for the 
best ten acres of corn and one for the best five acres of meadow. 
I cannot remember how many people competed for the different 
prizes, but I can remember that Robert P. Faulkner, whose farm 
was a part of the southwest part of town, Kindred Rose, who 
lived in the Grand Prairie, and Elijah Gray, who lived south- 
west of town, were the three best exhibitors. 

Robert P. Faulkner raised 126 bushels to the acre ; Kindred 
Rose raised 123 bushels to the acre; Elijah Gray 121 bushels to 
the acre. The men who exhibited the corn were required to ex- 
plain how they cultivated it. I remember Mr. Faulkner's, be- 
cause it was the first time I ever heard of level cultivation. In 
his statement as to how he cultivated his corn he stated that he 
broke the land with a turning plow made by John Lair, whose 
shop was where the Woodruff building now stands. Following 
that furrow was an old-fashioned bull-tongued plow drawn by 
a big mule, and sunk as deeply into the ground as the mule could 
pull it. He then harrowed the land twice and planted it, and then 



90 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

harrowed it twice again; then plowed it with bull-tongue plows 
four times, always leaving the land as level as he could. Part 
of the ten acres was an old Indian field when the first settlers 
came here, but old Colonel Neville stated that Mr. Faulkner was 
"cultivating another farm lower down." 

The premium on hay was taken by Benjamin Cannefax, and 
I know of but one man living who helped to measure the corn 
or weigh the hay, and that is Mr. J. G. Dollison. I talked with 
him the other day and he told me that Mr. Cannefax 's hay 
weighed 3^^ tons to the acre. 

Dr. T. J. Bailey's favorite cow was milked on the fair grounds 
one day and gave a little over one bushel of milk. Fine horses 
and mules, it seems to me, Avere as plentiful as they are now, 
although the mules were not so large. One of the largest hogs 
that ever was raised in the county up to that time was brought 
and butchered by Joseph Morris and weighed over 825 pounds. 

Col. Solomon C. Neville, who settled in the Grand Prairie 
country, came here from Kentucky. I have always understood 
he imported his Angora goats, either in 1859 or 1860. I know 
I have never seen any finer ones than he had, and I have seen 
them at the fairs, I suppose as fine as there are in the world. He 
was very enthusiastic over his prospects for successful Angora 
goat raising, but the war, of course, put him out of business. 



I think it well in this small book to record for all future ages 
the exact circumstances of the death and burial of Gen. Nathan- 
iel Lyon, who was killed at the battle of Wilson Creek on the 
10th day of August, 1861. I think there is but one man living 
who knows all of the circumstances connected with his removal 
from the battlefield of Wilson Creek on that day. 

In 1910 I wrote to Dr. Melcher, who was a surgeon in the 
Volunteer Army, who participated in the battle on that date. I 
have known Dr. Melcher since 1861, and I know him to be a gen- 
tleman of the highest honor, with a memory unclouded, espe- 
cially of what happened at that time. I give his answer ver- 
batim : 



OF OLD SETTLERS 91 



'Mr. Martin J. Hubble, 

''Springfield, Mo. 



"2327 Jackson Blvd., 
'Chicago, 111., August 17, 1910. 



"Dear Old Friend and Comrade: 

"Replying to your favor of June 22, regarding the death of 
Gen, Lyon, bringing the body to Springfield, placing body in 
the casket made by Mr. Presley Beal, burial on the Phelps' farm, 
etc. As you say, I am probably the only person living who can 
give the particulars from personal knowledge. 

"I was with Dr. Smith, Gen. Rains' division surgeon, look- 
ing for wounded, not far from 12 o'clock noon, on August 10, '61, 
and learning from Col. Emmett McDonald that Gen. Lyon had 
been killed, asked for his body. He said, 'Come with me and I 
will see. ' In a few moments he took me to Gen. Price, and intro- 
ducing me as Gen. Lyon's surgeon, requested Gen. Price to give 
me the body. With Gen. Price were Col. McLane, Col. Snead, 
Gen. Parsons, Gen. Stein, Gen. Rains, and other officers. Gen. 
Price took me by the hand, and turning to Gen. Rains asked if 
he knew where the body was. On Gen. Rains answering that he 
did. Gen. Price ordered him to send for it for identification. In 
about twenty minutes I was notified by Gen. Stein, and went to 
the wagon, and on raising the blanket, which was over the face, 
I, at once, recognized my dead general. Gen. Stein said, 'Do you 
identify the body?' On my replying in the affirmative he rode 
away. Gen. Rains then said, 'What are your wishes?' Having 
no conveyance, I requested that the body be removed to the Ray 
house, where I was acquainted. 

"Arriving there, some of the Confederates kindly carried 
the body into the house, and placed it on a bed in the front room, 
where I examined for wounds. There was one on the right side 
of the head, another in the right leg below the knee, and another, 
which caused his death, was made by a small rifle ball, which 
entered about the fourth rib on the left side, passing entirely 
through the body, making its exit from the right side, evidently 
passing through both lungs and heart. From the character of 
this wound it is my opinion that Gen. Lyon was holding the bridle 
rein in his left hand, and had turned in the saddle to give a com- 



92 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

mand or words of encouragement, thus exposing his left side to 
the fire of the enemy. 

"At this time he had on a dark blue, single-breasted captain's 
coat, with the buttons used by the regular array of the United 
States. It was the same uniform coat I had frequently seen him 
wear in the arsenal at St. Louis, and was considerably worn and 
faded. He had no shoulder straps ; his pants were dark blue ; the 
wide-brim felt hat he had worn during the campaign was not 
with him, and there was no sword or other evidences of rank. 
After arranging the body as well as circumstances permitted, it 
was carried to the wagon and covered with a spread or sheet 
furnished by Mrs. Ray. 

"When I was ready to start Gen. Rains said: 'I will not 
order any to go with you, but volunteers may go'; and five Con- 
federate soldiers offered their service of escort. One drove the 
team ; the others, being mounted, rode with me in rear of wagon. 
The only name I can give is that of Orderly Sergt. Brackett of a 
company in Churchill's Arkansas regiment. Another of the es- 
cort was a German, who, in 1863, was clerking in Springfield, 
and during the defense of Springfield against the attack of Mar- 
maduke, January 8, 1863, did service in the citizens' company of 
42 men which was attached to my 'Quinine Brigade' from the 
hospitals. 

"Just as we were starting Gen. Rains requested that some- 
thing be written to show that he had done his duty in the mat- 
ter, and the following was written and signed by both of us, and 
is on file in the War Department in Washington: 

" 'Gen. James S. Rains, commanding Missouri State Guards, 
having learned that Gen. Lyon, commanding United States forces 
during action near Springfield, Mo., August 10, 1861, had fallen, 
kindly afforded military escort and transportation subject to my 
order. I also have his assurance that all the wounded shall be 
well taken care of and may be removed under the hospital flag, 
and that the dead shall be buried as rapidly as possible. 

" '(Signed) S. H. MELCHER, 
" 'Asst. Surg. 5th Reg. Mo. Vols. 



OF OLD SETTLERS 9d 

" 'Wilson Creek, Aug. 10, 1861. 

'' 'The above fully approved and indorsed. 

" ' (Signed) JAMES S. RAINS, 
" 'Brig.-Gen. Sth M. D., M. S. G.' 

"About half way to Springfield I saw a party under flag of 
truce going toward the battlefield, which I learned afterwards 
had been sent out from Springfield in search of the body. This 
party was probably 500 or 1,000 yards distant from me on the 
prairie as they passed. Arriving at Springfield about 6 p. m., 
the first officer I reported to was the ever faithful Col. Nelson 
Cole, then captain of Company E, 1st Missouri Volunteer Infan- 
try, who, with what remained of his gallant company, was guard- 
ing the outposts. All who were not on guard duty came to the 
wagon and took a last look at the general. I passed on, to the 
camps of Gen. James Totten and T. W. Sweeney. Here Gen. 
Totten relieved my escort and sent them back to their command, 
a new driver was furnished, and I delivered the body of Gen. 
Lyon to Maj. J. M. Schofield, 1st Missouri Volunteer Infantry — 
later Lieut.-Gen. Schofield, U. S. A. — at the house that had been 
used previous to the battle by Gen. Lyon for his headquarters. 
[On the north side of College and a few doors west of Main 
street.— M. J. H.] 

"Early the next morning the two nurses from the hospital 
who had remained with the body after the troops left reported 
to the hospital that some ladies had taken their place to watch 
with the body. I went there and found Mrs. Boyd, wife of Col. 
Marcus Boyd (she is still living — the widow of Mr. Blackwell), 
with her two eldest daughters, one of whom is now living in 
Springfield, Mrs. Lula Boyd Kennedy, and Mrs. Jane Beal, who 
remained with the body until it was placed in a black walnut 
coffin which Mr. Presley Beal had been constructing by order 
of Dr. Franklin, when Mrs. Mary Phelps appeared, and the coffin 
containing the body was placed in a wagon and taken to her farm. 
This is the last I knew, personally, of the disposition of Gen. 
Lyon's body. 

"Yours fraternally, 

"(Signed) S. H. MELCHER. 

"P. S. — I enclose slip, published in the 'National Tribune.' " 



94 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

WHOSE SWORD IS IT— NOT GENERAL LYON'S 

Editor National Tribune : In your issue of April 4 is an item 
in the Washington columns regarding a sword in the National 
Museum, said sword purporting to be the one worn by and be- 
longing to Gen. Nathaniel Lyon at the battle of Wilson Creek. 
The item states, "One of the battery officers was Churchill Clark, 
a cousin of the general, and when the body was sent back to 
the Federal lines next day under a flag of truce, he unhooked the 
sword from the belt and put it on," etc. The facts are, the body 
was turned over to me by General Rains by order of Gen. Price, 
and I proceeded from the Ray house with a volunteer Confed- 
erate escort in charge of Orderly Sergeant Brackett of Cliurehill's 
Regiment of Arkansas Mounted Infantry, arriving in Springfield 
about 6 o'clock August 10, 1861. 

There was on the body no sword, belt, shoulder straps or 
other insignia of rank except a single-breasted regulation cap- 
tain's coat. 

From May 7, 1861, for five weeks I was a member of Gen. 
Lyon's military household at the arsenal in St. Louis, meeting 
him many times every day. I do not recollect ever seeing him 
wearing a sword or a sword belt. 

After returning to Springfield with the wounded from the 
battle of Carthage, about July 7, I saw him every day up to 
5:30 o'clock p. m., August 9, when we were about ready to move 
to Wilson's Creek, and do not remember of seeing him with a 
sword. 

I am the officer who received the body from Gen. Price, 
brought it to Springfield that same evening of the day of the 
battle, turned it over to Major Schofield (Lieut. Gen. Schofield 
later), assisted Surgeon Frankliii in preparing the body the next 
day for burial, placed the body in a coffin, made by Presley Beale, 
a cabinet maker of Springfield. These facts are matters of his- 
tory. I also send you a statement by Col. David Murphy, of St. 
Louis. — S. H. Melcher (Assistant Surgeon, 5th Mo., Aug. 10, 1861, 
Springfield, Missouri). 

The following is a copy of a letter written by Col. David 
Murphy to Dr. Melcher as to the foregoing extract: 



^Col. S. H. Melcher 



OF OLD SETTLERS 95 

"Springfield, Mo., April 11, 1907. 



"Your letter of the 10th inst. is at hand. In reply to your 
inquiry concerning the clothing and arms worn by Gen. Lyon 
at the battle of Wilson Creek, fought August 10, 1861, I will 
state that I was with Maj. Osterhaus' battalion of the 2nd Mo. 
when it made its last bayonet charge, and received a gunshot 
wound in my leg which disabled me. 

"I went to the rear for surgical assistance, and after having 
the bullet extracted by Lieut. Lothrop, of the 4th U. S. Art., pro- 
ceeded to inspect the field, and wandered about among the dead 
and wounded. In this way I espied Private Edw. Lehman, of 
Co. B, 2d U. S., crouching by the side of a body which was cov- 
ered with a U. S. army overcoat. 

"I asked Lehman if the body was that of the General. He 
answered with a nod of his head. I asked him why he did not 
have the body taken into Springfield? He answered by asking 
the question, 'What can a private soldier do?' 

"Observing one of Capt. E. A. Carr's wagons passing at the 
base of the hill I hailed it, told the teamster that I wanted him 
to take the body of Gen. Lyon into Springfield. The teamster 
turned his wagon from the road up to where the dead General 
lay, and the three of us lifted the body into the wagon, requir- 
ing the wounded soldiers therein to make room for the body, and 
I saw the wagon drive off in the direction of Springfield. 

"A few minutes later, a sergeant of the regular army came 
up and ordered the body taken out, saying, 'There will be an 
ambulance here in a minute for it.' The corpse was then carried 
beneath the shade tree where it had before reposed. The Fed- 
eral army now retreated, and the ambulance ordered never came 
up. * * The body had been placed in a small covered wagon, 
used as an ambulance, to be conveyed to Gen. McCulloch's head- 
quarters (not Gen. Price's) when an order arrived that it should 
be taken to Price's and delivered to Dr. S. H, Melcher. 

"As you say, the General wore a captain's uniform coat, 
but no sword. I met the general frequently at the St. Louis 



96 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

Arsenal, also en route to and on the march from Boonville south 
to Springfield, prior to the battle without epaulettes, sword or 
belt, and never saw him wear either a sword or belt. 

"DAVID MURPHY, 

"St. Louis, Mo." 

There can be no doubt that the foregoing is absolutely 
correct. — M. J. H. 



"CIRCUIT JUDGES TO 1860" 

CHARLES H. ALLEN (HOSS ALLEN) 
He was a Whig and the country was Democratic. At his 
first session of court the Senator from this district went to the 
court room to "lick him." Peaceable citizens stopped his prog- 
ress, but a commotion was created and one of the Headlees, 
Whig supporters of "Old Hoss," went to his defense and told 
"Old Hoss" the situation. "Old Hoss" said, "Sheriff, adjourn 
court." He took off his wig and gown and laid them on the rail- 
ing in front and walked up to the irate Senator and said, "Maj. 

W , I am 'Hoss Allen' NOW and I can lick you," but friends 

interfered and got the irate Major out of the court house. 

FOSTER P. WRIGHT 
CHARLES S. YANCY 

PATRIC H. EDWARDS 

Of whom this story was told: 

His brother sent him to feed the hogs when he was a boy, 
and he was gone a year, and when he came home he went to 
where he had hung his basket containing the corn to feed the 
hogs — when he "lit out" — got the basket and "showed up" to 
his brother on the porch. 

Brother: "Where have you been?" 

P. H.: "Been to feed the hofi:s." 

Brother: "You've been a long time at it." 

I think he had. 



LBS 14 



